TEHRAN, 25 January 2005 — Iran may allow UN inspectors back into a military base where Washington says tests linked to a covert atomic weapons program could have taken place, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying yesterday. After several months of delay, Iran earlier this month let a team from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency take environmental samples at the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran.
But IAEA inspectors did not get the full access to the site they wanted and would like to return to take further samples, diplomats in Vienna said. Asked whether the inspectors would be allowed back into Parchin, Hossein Mousavian, one of Iran’s chief nuclear negotiators, said: “I cannot rule this out.”
“The IAEA had earlier asked to inspect two parts of the Parchin complex but only visited one part,” the Web site of the state-owned Iran daily newspaper quoted him as saying. Iranian officials had previously said that the IAEA inspectors would not be allowed to enter any buildings at Parchin and could only take samples from open areas. Iran denies US accusations that it is developing nuclear weapons but has agreed to freeze all activities that could be used to make atomic bombs while it negotiates a lasting solution to the issue with the European Union.
Iranian officials have expressed confidence that the Parchin samples will disprove allegations that Iran had been conducting research there linked to “weaponization” — the manufacture, testing and integration of a nuclear warhead with a delivery system such as a missile. “The inspectors have taken samples from Parchin and will announce the result of their investigation in a month or so,” Mousavian said.
