TEHRAN, 14 December 2002 — The International nuclear watchdog yesterday said that it would send inspectors to check on two Iranian nuclear plants under construction as Tehran dismissed US accusations that the plants could be used to make secret nuclear weapons.
“We don’t have any hidden atomic activities. All our nuclear activities are for non-military fields,” Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told reporters on the sidelines of a political conference.
He was responding to remarks by US officials claiming that two nuclear sites near the central Iranian towns of Natanz and Arak, seen in commercial satellite photographs, were of a type which suggested Iran could use them to build a nuclear weapon.
The White House said it has “great concerns” about the two nuclear sites that it said could be used to produce elements of atomic weapons. “We have serious concerns about this,” said spokesman Ari Fleischer. “Such facilities are simply not justified by the needs that Iran has for their civilian nuclear programs.”
“The suspect uranium enrichment plant could be used to produce highly enriched uranium for weapons. The heavy-water plant could support a reactor for producing weapons-grade plutonium,” said Fleischer.
“The recent disclosure about secure nuclear facilities in Iran reinforces the concerns that the president has had all along,” Fleischer said as Washington urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the sites.
The Vienna-based IAEA said it was aware of the facilities being built in Iran and planned to inspect them in February.
Iran invited IAEA inspectors after informing the agency in September of plans to build nuclear power plants and related fuel facilities over the next 20 years, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. “The director general, with a team of technical experts, plans to make such a visit in February 2003,” Gwozdecky told Reuters. “We don’t jump to conclusions. We will visit shortly and determine for ourselves what the facilities are.”
Ramazanzadeh told Reuters in Tehran by telephone there was no obstacle for an IAEA inspection team to visit the sites. “I cannot discuss the date because some expert work should be done regarding the date,” he said. “We have always said that our activities for peaceful usage of nuclear energy could be inspected.”
US officials, who declined to be named, on Thursday revealed their concerns about the sites in Iran. “It is true that there are two suspicious facilities in those locations in Iran. They were first publicly identified by an Iranian opposition group this past summer. They certainly are worth looking into,” they said.
But Ramazanzadeh said the plants were not sinister, noting the one near Natanz was to conduct research into radioactivity.
But the disclosure raised a new challenge for US President George W. Bush as he tries to head off North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as well as what Washington believes is an effort to develop nuclear weapons capability.
UN experts are also currently carrying out inspections in Iraq which the United States accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction. Bush earlier this year labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea an “axis of evil”.
The United States and Iran have been foes since student militants seized the US Embassy in Tehran during the 1979 revolution and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Tehran has been developing a medium-range ballistic missile experts say would be able to hit Israel.
The United States has also been at odds with Russia over its help in building a nuclear power plant at the southwestern port of Bushehr which Tehran expects to come on line next year. (Agencies)
