UN nuclear watchdog to visit Parchin military site in Iran

AFP: The UN atomic agency will visit “within the next few weeks” the Parchin military facility in Iran where the US charges that Tehran is carrying out simulation testing of atomic weapons, the agency’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei told AFP Wednesday.
“We expect to visit Parchin within the next few weeks,” ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been seeking to visit Parchin since July. AFP

VIENNA – The UN atomic agency will visit “within the next few weeks” the Parchin military facility in Iran where the US charges that Tehran is carrying out simulation testing of atomic weapons, the agency’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei told AFP Wednesday.

“We expect to visit Parchin within the next few weeks,” ElBaradei said.

ElBaradei’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been seeking to visit Parchin since July.

Iran denies carrying out any nuclear-related work at Parchin, a huge military complex 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of Tehran.

A senior US official has told AFP the United States was concerned about high-explosives testing in Parchin that may “amount to (nuclear) weapons intent”.

The official said the concern about Parchin was that the Iranians may be working on testing “high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium” as a sort of dry test for how a bomb with fissile material would work.

Parchin is a site for a variety of defense projects, including Defense Industries Organization (DIO) work in chemical explosives.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly civilian and peaceful and that it is not developing atomic weapons.