Vienna, 23 August (AKI) - The Iranian authorities have in recent weeks been granting United Nations inspectors less access to the country's atomic facilities, an unnamed source at the UN nuclear watchdog has told Adnkronos International (AKI). "Two of our inspectors have not been given visas to enter Iran and two others were given single-entry visas for just one week," the source said. The inspectors were reportedly denied access to most of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.
"Our inspectors were not allowed to visit the underground facilities, where most of the 35,000 centrifuges are located," a source at the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AKI, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The inspectors were due to visit Natanz ahead of a progress report that IAEA chief, Mohammed ElBaradei, is due to present to the UN General Assembly on 11 September.
World powers suspect that Iran is seeking to develop a covert nuclear weapon programme, and the UN Security Council has given Iran until 31 August to halt its uranium enrichment plan or face sanctions.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on Tuesday announced that it is prepared to continue discussions with the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany over a package of economic, technological and diplomatic incentives they offered Iran on 6 June in exchange for halting uranium enrichment.
AKI has learned the underground centrifuges at Natanz are located 25 metres underground, and are protected by five layers of fortified cement and other materials. The architecture of the site - which can hold up to 60,000 linked centrifuges - is said to be extremely complex.
New centrifuges have been installed at Natanz over the past two weeks, an unnamed IAEA source told AKI on Monday - the same day that Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, indicated that Iran would pursue its nuclear programme with force. The government maintains its nuclear ambitions are wholly peaceful, and that Iran has a sovereign right to develop atomic energy under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. |
