(Adds Mehmanparast comment)
By Marcus George
DUBAI, May 27 (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog has not
yet given good enough reasons to visit an Iranian site where it
suspects there may have been experiments for developing nuclear
weapons, Iranian media said.
The Parchin complex is at the centre of Western suspicions
that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability despite
Tehran’s repeated denials of any such ambition. A report from
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week said
satellite images showed “extensive activities” at Parchin.
Iranian officials have refused access to the complex,
southeast of Tehran, saying it is a military site.
“The reasons and document have still not been presented by
the agency to convince us to give permission for this visit,”
the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoun
Abbasi-Davani, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency on
Saturday.
Six world powers failed to convince Iran last week to halt
its most sensitive nuclear work, but they will meet again in
Moscow next month to try to end a stand-off that has raised
fears of a new war that could threaten global oil supplies.
Last November, an IAEA report found Iran had built a large
containment vessel in 2000 at Parchin in which to conduct tests
that the agency said were “strong indicators of possible weapon
development”.
In last week’s report, the IAEA did not elaborate on what
activities it believed were happening there, but Western
diplomats suspect Iran is trying to remove any potentially
incriminating evidence. Tehran rejects this charge.
INSPECTION HOPES
After a visit to Tehran last week, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano
said he was close to an agreement with Iran on inspection visits
to nuclear facilities but some differences remained.
The U.S.-based Institute for Science and International
Security think-tank has said there is concern Iran may be trying
to cleanse the building at Parchin – possibly by grinding down
surfaces, collecting the dust and washing the area thoroughly.
Referring to the Baghdad talks with world powers,
Abbasi-Davani dismissed pressure for an end to high-grade
uranium enrichment as “predictable”.
Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent fissile
purity, saying it is needed for a medical research reactor, but
worrying Western countries who see it as a big step towards the
90 percent purity needed for weapons-grade uranium.
“There is no reason for us to give up enriching uranium to
20 percent because we produce this fuel only to meet our needs,
no more and no less,” the ISNA news agency quoted Abbasi-Davani
as saying.
Tehran says it has a sovereign right to enrich uranium, but
has sometimes indicated it may be flexible when it comes to
higher grade uranium enrichment.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said
on Sunday that Western powers had made the talks “impossible” by
demanding Iran stop nuclear activities.
“They always make absurd demands, and by setting the
condition to stop activities, they made the talks impossible,”
the semi-official Mehr agency quoted Mehmanparast as saying.
Iran has expanded enrichment at its Fordow nuclear facility,
buried deep beneath rock and soil to protect it from air
strikes.
Last week’s IAEA report said nuclear engineers had installed
50 percent more enrichment centrifuges at Fordow. Although not
yet being fed with uranium, the new machines could be used to
further boost Iran’s output of uranium enriched to 20 percent.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Jon
Hemming)
