Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that Tehran would not allow international inspectors of the United Nations atomic watchdog to visit a military site without providing convincing proof that would justify inspection. Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that Tehran would not allow international inspectors of the United Nations atomic watchdog to visit a military site without providing convincing proof that would justify inspection.
They cannot constantly and randomly say that we want to see this or that, or speak to this person or that person, so that the case drags on, Hamid-Reza Asefi said, referring to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He was responding to a question in his weekly press conference on whether Iran would allow the UN watchdog bodys inspectors to visit the suspect nuclear site at Lavizan Shian in Tehran.
Under a previous agreement with the EU-3, Iran was obliged to provide access to such sites.
Asefi did not identify what sorts of concrete evidence the UN body had to provide to be allowed to inspect the site, but analysts said his comments mean an end to inspection of military sites.
The whole point is to have surprise inspections, said Hans Steuber, a German military analyst familiar with Iran. To say the inspectors must provide convincing proof to gain access to a site means no inspection at all.
Asefi denied that Iran had been given a deal by Moscow for it to carry out some of its sensitive nuclear work on Russian soil.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman also defended Tehrans influence in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan. That which we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is based on our responsibilities in the region. We think that the work Iran has done in Iraq has been very humanitarian and Islamic.
