IAEA Chief Granted Access to Covert Iran Military Site
(Worthy News) – The head of the UN atomic watchdog was granted access Sunday to a controversial Iranian military site where it is alleged covert research to build a nuclear bomb took place, AFP reported.
Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited Parchin, a base east of Tehran as efforts are stepped up to resolve by year end “ambiguities” with Iran about past “possible military dimensions” of its nuclear program.
The original itinerary for Amano’s one-day visit to Iran did not include a visit to Parchin.
Iran has claimed that the allegations that it sought to build a bomb – including that it conducted relevant nuclear detonator tests at the covert Parchin military base – are groundless.
However, Iran last October admitted to using Parchin to test exploding bridge wires, used as nuclear detonators. [ Source ]
Iran says it gave IAEA Parchin samples it drew itself
Iran’s official IRNA news service reported that the country has given samples to the UN nuclear agency from its Parchin military site, where it once allegedly worked on triggers for nuclear weapons. The environmental samples were taken without international inspectors present, according to the spokesman for Iran’s atomic agency.
The question of how samples were to be drawn from the site, which is suspected of past covert military activity, has been hotly debated. The Associated Press reported that a draft agreement between the IAEA and Iran stipulates that Tehran can take its own samples for examination as part of the nuclear deal. Western diplomats have maintained that samples will be drawn with IAEA representatives observing.
“Iranian experts took samples from specific locations in Parchin facilities this week without IAEA’s inspectors being present,” Behruz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA, according to Reuters. [ Source ]