UN nuclear agency eyes Iran deal, Parchin visit

TEHRAN,Jan.16(MNA)– The UN nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday it hoped to gain access to the Parchin military site during a visit to Iran today aimed at reaching an agreement for further investigation into Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency will seek to finalize a framework deal with Iran in Wednesday’s talks in Tehran that would enable it to relaunch its inquiry, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said. “We are approaching these talks in a constructive spirit ... and we trust that Iran will work with us in the same spirit,” he said at Vienna airport before his team departed for Tehran for a new round of negotiations. World powers striving to resolve a decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear work will closely monitor the IAEA-Iran talks. Uncertainty reigns over when the powers - the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain - and Iran will resume their separate negotiations aimed at finding a broader diplomatic solution. Israel - a U.S. ally believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal - has threatened military action if diplomacy and economic sanctions intended to curb Iran’s uranium enrichment program do not resolve the stand-off. Iran says its nuclear work is an entirely peaceful project to generate an alternative source of energy for a rapidly expanding population. The IAEA, whose mission it is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the world, has been trying for a year to negotiate a so-called structured approach with Tehran that would give it access to sites, officials, and documents in Iran. Both the IAEA and Tehran have said progress was made at their last meeting in mid-December. “We are aiming to finalize the structured approach to resolving the outstanding issues on the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program,” Nackaerts said. The IAEA’s immediate priority is to visit the Parchin military facility southeast of Tehran, where it suspects explosive tests relevant for nuclear weapons may have taken place. Iran denies the allegation. “We hope that we will be allowed to go to Parchin and if access is granted we will welcome the chance to do so,” Nackaerts said. “We are ready to go.” Western diplomats claim that Iran has worked for the past year to cleanse Parchin of any incriminating evidence. Iran, which rejects accusations of a covert bid to develop the means and technologies needed to produce nuclear arms, says it must first reach a framework accord with the IAEA on how the inquiry should be done before providing any Parchin access. It says Parchin is a conventional military facility and has dismissed accusations that it is “sanitizing” the premises.