With a key deadline approaching, the head of the United Nations nuclear agency is leaving for Tehran Saturday for high-level meetings as he tries to accelerate his probe of allegations that Iran worked in the past on nuclear weapons.
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The experts said failure to disclose the details was damaging the credibility of the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog. Tehran has previously tried to keep the IAEA away from the military complex where it is thought that scientists have experimented with explosives designed to set off a nuclear charge. It makes no mention of any physical IAEA presence near the sampling sites.
A draft document seen by The Associated Press stipulates that Iranian staff will collect environmental samples at the site after providing the IAEA with photos and videos of the areas where the samples will be collected.
While there is now agreement on Parchin, the terms diverge from the usual practice of having IAEA experts do the inspecting.
Iran has dismissed a report claiming that the upcoming visit to the Iranian capital, Tehran, by the director general of the global Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is aimed at securing interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists. The IAEA is the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
They also added that the formal adoption of the agreement will be October 18, noting the exact time of the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions is not yet clear.
A spokeswoman for the agency declined to specify which officials he would meet.
They will also discuss trade links, human rights and Iran’s role in the upheavals in the Middle East.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius – one of the main negotiators of the deal reached in Vienna on July 14 – has already visited Tehran, as have British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
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Iran can not receive sanctions relief promised under the nuclear deal until the IAEA is satisfied it has answered outstanding questions about the so-called “possible military dimensions” of past Iranian nuclear research.
