AFP: UN inspectors made a last-minute visit in Iran Tuesday to a uranium enrichment plant ahead of a report that could lead to new sanctions against Tehran over its atomic ambitions, diplomats told AFP. VIENNA, May 22, 2007 (AFP) – UN inspectors made a last-minute visit in Iran Tuesday to a uranium enrichment plant ahead of a report that could lead to new sanctions against Tehran over its atomic ambitions, diplomats told AFP.
“There was another inspection Tuesday and apparently all went well,” said a diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the confidentiality of the information.
In Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted an unnamed source saying that inspectors from the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency had arrived for “a routine visit and they will inspect the Isfahan and Natanz facilities.”
Isfahan houses Iran’s uranium conversion facility while Natanz is the location of its most sensitive nuclear plant where the enrichment of uranium takes place.
Tehran has so far defied demands and sanctions from the UN Security Council for it to suspend enrichment, which the West fears could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says it needs to enrich to produce fuel for nuclear reactors as part of a program to produce electricity for its growing population.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to report Wednesday on Tehran’s nuclear work, as required by a Security Council resolution of March 23 that had imposed a second round of sanctions after a first round levied last December.
The diplomat said the report should have “no surprises and everything in it will be negative for Iran.”
Iran refuses to abandon uranium enrichment.
UN inspectors last visited Iran two weeks ago. After those inspections, diplomats in Vienna said the Islamic republic had made progress in enriching uranium despite the UN sanctions.
