BERLIN/VIENNA – Six world powers called on Iran on Thursday to let international
inspectors visit a military site where the UN nuclear watchdog says development
work relevant to nuclear weapons may have taken place.
In a joint
statement at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the
powers also voiced “regret” over Iran’s stepped-up campaign to enrich uranium –
activity which can have both civilian and military purposes.
“We urge
Iran to fulfill its undertaking to grant access to Parchin,” the statement said,
referring to the military facility southeast of Tehran. Iran refused access to
the complex during two rounds of talks with a senior IAEA team earlier this
year.
Western diplomats suspect the Islamic state may now be trying to
clean up the site to remove evidence of research with nuclear applications
before possibly allowing inspectors in.
The six powers handling the Iran
nuclear issue are the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany and
Britain.
An IAEA report last year revealed a trove of intelligence
pointing to research activities in Iran in developing the means and technologies
needed to assemble nuclear weapons, should it decide to do so.
One
salient finding was information that Iran had built a large containment chamber
at Parchin in which to conduct highexplosives tests that the IAEA said are
“strong indicators of possible weapon development.”
Iran has suggested
that the IAEA could get access to Parchin, but only after a broader deal is
reached on how to address all outstanding issues between Tehran and the
Vienna-based agency – an approach Western diplomats dismissed as a stalling
tactic.
The world powers’ statement, agreed on after intensive
discussions within the often disunited group, also voiced backing for efforts to
find a diplomatic solution to the long-running row.
In an interview on
Wednesday with CNN, Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director-general, said, “Iran is not
telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with
us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer.”
Israel and the US have
threatened Iran with military strikes as a last-ditch way to stop it getting
nuclear weapons. British foreign secretary William Hague and Dutch foreign
minister Uri Rosenthal have also left the military option open. In an interview
with the Austrian Der Standard newspaper last month, Rosenthal reaffirmed his
country’s position not to rule out the possibility of military
intervention.
The House of Commons in the United Kingdom in February
voted 285 to six for a cross-party amendment to preserve all options targeting
Iran.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, who represents the six powers in
dealing with Iran, said on Tuesday they had accepted Iran’s offer to return to
talks after a standstill of a year that saw increasingly bellicose
rhetoric.
“We... reaffirm our continuing support for a diplomatic
solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and readiness to restart dialogue with
Iran,” the powers said in their statement, read out by China’s envoy to the IAEA
at the closed-door meeting.
“We call on Iran to enter, without
preconditions, into a sustained process of serious dialogue which will produce
concrete results.”
Iran has refused at previous talks to negotiate on the
future of its nuclear activity.
Iran’s envoy to France Ali Ahani,
however, rejected a demand to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment
process. When asked if discussions on reducing or even cutting uranium
enrichment were possible, the former deputy foreign minister replied,
“No.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed comments by
US President Barack Obama about a diplomatic “window of opportunity” offered by
renewed talks, but said Washington’s simultaneous moves to “bring the Iranian
people to their knees” with harsh sanctions were driven by
delusion.
Iran’s rapid development of sizable quantities of uranium has
raised new worries that Tehran is close to reaching the point of securing
weapons grade uranium.
In a detailed article on Wednesday on the website
of the US magazine National Review, Dr. Robert Zubrin , who has PhD in nuclear
engineering, wrote that according to the IAEA report, “Iran already has 74
kilograms of 20- percent–enriched uranium- 235, and is producing more material
at a rate of 6.8 kilograms per month. Assuming that the IAEA is correct
in its figures, it would take Iran another 26 months to have enough 20%–enriched
uranium- 235 material to build a bomb.”
He added though that “if the IAEA
has underestimated Iran’s production rate, or if Iran continues to step up the
pace, sufficient material for a bomb could be available much sooner.”