IAEA concerned will find nothing at Iran N-site after ‘cleanup’

VIENNA: UN nuclear investigators may no longer find anything if granted access to Iran’s Parchin military site, their chief said yesterday, in view of suspected Iranian efforts to remove any traces of illicit atomic activity there.
Yukiya Amano also said his agency’s talks with Iran on unblocking an IAEA inquiry into possible nuclear arms research by Tehran had been “going around in circles” for some time.
Amano was airing unusually blunt criticism that reflected the mounting tension over Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program that has increased fears of a new Middle East war.
Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, vented growing frustration at the lack of results in getting Iran to address international concerns. Tehran denies its nuclear energy quest is a disguised bid for atomic bombs.
In hard-hitting comments to the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors and later at a news conference, he also said Iranian advances in building a research reactor and in its uranium enrichment work were in “clear contravention” of UN Security Council resolutions calling for a suspension in such activities.
“To be frank, for some time now we have been going around in circles,” Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, said.
But Amano acknowledged for the first time that “extensive activities” by Iran — including removal of soil and asphalting — now meant inspectors may return empty-handed even if Iran were to allow them to visit. Iran says Parchin is a conventional military site and has dismissed the cleansing allegations.
“It may no longer be possible to find anything,” he said, adding, however, that the IAEA still wanted to go to Parchin.