IAEA chief visits Iran’s sensitive military site

Vienna: The chief of UN’s nuclear agency visited Parchin, one of Iran’s most sensitive sites, that Western intelligence agencies have claimed might have been the location for conducting secret nuclear tests with possible military dimensions, a statement said.

Iran has, however, strongly denied the allegations.

Parchin, located in the south-east of capital Tehran, is considered to be one of the most important issues of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s probe of Iran’s nuclear plan, and the agency on Sunday said it wanted to get the full access to the site.

“As part of the implementation of the Road-map, the Director General (Yukiya Amano) visited the site of Parchin, together with the Head of the Department of Safeguards, Tero Varjoranta,” Xinhua reported, citing an IAEA statement.

On Sunday, Amano also met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Amano’s visit to Tehran came as the IAEA is racing to implement an agreement reached in mid-July between Iran and the world powers to resolve Iran’s nuclear standoff.

Under the deal, Iran would improve the transparency of its nuclear plan while freezing some of its nuclear activities in exchange for sanction relief.

–IANS