VIENNA/TEHRAN: Tehran is still seeking to sidestep sanctions to get materials for its nuclear program, a senior US official said Friday on a European tour seeking to cool renewed corporate enthusiasm about doing business in Iran.

Iran is “undoubtedly still looking for ways to acquire material for their nuclear program,” the US official, speaking in Austria on a tour also taking in Britain, Germany, Turkey, Italy and other places, said on condition of anonymity.

“We have seen over many years that the Iranians take advantage of the commercial and financial relationships that purport to be for legitimate purposes to surreptitiously acquire materials that they are looking for for their nuclear program and their ballistic missile program, to facilitate their support for terrorism,” he said.

As a result he said that any “responsible” firm should think twice before seeking to do business with Iran when the Islamic republic gains minor relief from sanctions from Monday as part of a nuclear deal with world powers.

Meanwhile, UN nuclear experts are to inspect Iran’s Gachin uranium mine later this month for the first time in almost nine years, its Atomic Energy Organization (AEO) said on Friday.

“The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will travel to Tehran on Jan. 29 to visit Gachin mine,” AEO spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told Iran’s official IRNA news agency.