Iran: The Agency Has No Plans to Inspect Our Military Sites

The spokesperson for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization stated that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has no plans to inspect Iran's military sites, and the visit of the agency's director general to the Parchin site was solely for 'clarification.' On Tuesday, September 31, the Mehr News Agency quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, who referred to the recent visit of Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director general, to the military site of Parchin, stating that this visit was conducted 'to clarify ambiguities and in accordance with principles and red lines.' He denied the issue of Mr. Amano inspecting the Parchin site, asserting: 'Inspectors usually arrive with equipment that can be used for espionage. [However] Mr. Amano visited [the Parchin site] without any equipment or even a mobile phone, and only had an observational visit.' Yukiya Amano traveled to Iran on a Sunday, and during this trip, in addition to meeting with the President and Foreign Minister of Iran and attending a special commission examining the Iran nuclear agreement in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, he also visited the military site of Parchin, a location that the agency has suggested may have been involved in nuclear weapon-related tests at some point. On the same day, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization announced that this visit was merely 'ceremonial,' and Mr. Amano visited workshops that had previously been subject to 'baseless claims,' and 'especially observed the process of repairing and reconstructing the access road to the Mamlou Dam near Parchin, which had subsided due to recent rainfall.' Now, Behrouz Kamalvandi assesses this visit positively, stating that 'given the years of speculation through satellite images of this location, seeing Parchin was beneficial and will certainly clarify ambiguities.' Mr. Kamalvandi ultimately assured domestic critics of the Iran nuclear agreement that neither the issue of IAEA inspectors entering Iran's military sites nor the discussion of interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists is on the table.