by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report says Iran has built "a small extension to an existing building" at Parchin nuclear site • "Iran doesn't need to ask for the IAEA's permission to do construction work on its sites," says Iranian envoy.
The Parchin military site in Iran
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Photo credit: AP  |
Iran appears to have built an extension to
part of its Parchin military site since May, the U.N. nuclear watchdog,
the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Thursday, as part of its
inquiry into possible military dimensions of Tehran's past nuclear
activity.
Resolving the agency's Parchin file, which
includes a demand for fresh IAEA access to the site, is a symbolically
important issue that could help make or break Tehran's July 14 nuclear
deal with six world powers.
The confidential IAEA report, obtained by
Reuters, said: "Since [our] previous report [in May], at a particular
location at the Parchin site, the agency has continued to observe,
through satellite imagery, the presence of vehicles, equipment, and
probable construction materials. In addition, a small extension to an
existing building" appeared to have been built.
The changes were first observed last month, a senior diplomat familiar with the Iran file said.
The IAEA says any activities Iran has
undertaken at Parchin since U.N. inspectors last visited in 2005 could
jeopardize its ability to verify Western intelligence suggesting Tehran
carried out tests there relevant to nuclear bomb detonations more than a
decade ago. Iran has dismissed the intelligence as "fabricated."
Under a "road map" accord Iran reached with
the IAEA parallel to its ground-breaking settlement with the global
powers, it is required to give the Vienna-based watchdog enough
information about its past nuclear activity to allow it to write a
report by year's end.
"Full and timely implementation of the
relevant parts of the road map is essential to clarify issues relating
to this location at Parchin," the new IAEA report said.
According to data given to the IAEA by some
member states, Parchin might have housed hydrodynamic experiments to
assess how specific materials react under high pressure, such as in a
nuclear blast.
"We cannot know or speculate what's in the
[extended] building. ... It's something we will technically clarify over
the course of the year," the senior diplomat said. The report said the
extended building was not the one that some countries suspect has housed
the controversial experiments.
"It’s funny that the IAEA claims there has
been a small extension to a building. ... Iran doesn't need to ask for
the IAEA's permission to do construction work on its sites," Reza
Najafi, Iran's envoy to the agency, was quoted as saying by ISNA news
agency.
Under its Vienna accord with the powers, Iran
must put verifiable limits on its uranium enrichment program to create
confidence it will not be used to develop nuclear bombs, in exchange for
a removal of sanctions crippling its economy.
Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium gas
of a fissile purity of up to 5 percent had since May decreased by around
870 kilograms to 7,845.4 kilograms, the report said. Once the July deal
is implemented, which is expected to happen at some point in the next
year, this stockpile must be reduced to 300 kilograms.
The IAEA has come under pressure, especially
from U.S. lawmakers who will hold a critical vote next month on whether
to ratify the deal between Iran and the powers, for not publishing its
"road map" agreement with Tehran.
Amano last week rejected as "a
misrepresentation" suggestions from hawkish critics of the nuclear
accord that the IAEA had quietly agreed to allow Iran to inspect
sections of Parchin on the agency's behalf.
Meanwhile, Russia and Iran have signed a
memorandum on the implementation of the agreement to deliver advanced
Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense systems to Iran.
"This week, a memorandum on the implementation
of the agreement to supply Russian S-300 missile defense systems to
Iran has been signed. It is a kind of a 'road map,'" a senior official
from the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation told
Russian news agency RIA Novosti, which occasionally serves as a
mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
He added that the memorandum does not specify a specific time frame, the number of systems to be delivered, or prices.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=27907
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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