Reuters: U.N. atomic inspectors have arrived in Iran to supervise Tehran’s resumption of nuclear fuel research, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday. TEHRAN (Reuters) – U.N. atomic inspectors have arrived in Iran to supervise Tehran’s resumption of nuclear fuel research, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
“Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran last night,” Hossein Entezami, spokesman of the Supreme National Security Council, told Reuters.
“The research will be started in co-ordination with the agency,” he added.
Iran’s decision to resume atomic fuel research has drawn fire from the United States and Europe, which suspect Tehran could be secretly working on nuclear arms. Tehran denies the charge.
European diplomats speculate resuming research on nuclear fuel could amplify calls for Iran to be sent to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
It is not exactly clear what Iran’s nuclear fuel research will entail — whether it will just be tests on equipment or actually involve small amounts of uranium being enriched in a laboratory environment.
Washington has said a resumption of nuclear fuel research would signal Tehran was not interested in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.
Much of the international community has called on Iran to give up its work on nuclear fuel and send its uranium to Russia to be enriched there.
Iran insists the fuel needed for its nuclear power station at the southern port of Bushehr must be produced domestically.
