UN Inspectors in Iran for 'Routine' Visit - Iran
Date: 21-Jul-03
Country: IRAN
"It is a routine and pre-planned visit of Iran's nuclear facilities. They visit Iran's nuclear sites according to their scheduled plans," Khalil Mousavi, spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told Reuters.
Diplomats have told Reuters initial analysis of environmental samples taken in Iran showed uranium enrichment levels possibly consistent with an attempt to make weapons-grade material.
Enriching uranium without the knowledge of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - something which Iran has denied doing - would deepen U.S. suspicions that Tehran's nuclear ambitions go beyond its stated aim of using nuclear energy to generate electricity.
Diplomats said Iran may argue that the presence of enriched uranium in the IAEA samples was caused by contamination. But how that contamination occurred would have to be thoroughly explained, they said.
Iran says the IAEA has not raised the issue of the sample results with Tehran.
"It is the responsibility of the IAEA to make comments on this issue, not diplomats who do not have exact information on such things," state radio quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying on Saturday.
Asefi said the uranium enrichment facility located near the central town of Natanz had not yet come on stream and was under the full supervision of the IAEA, state radio reported.
Mousavi declined to say how long the IAEA inspectors would stay in Iran and which sites they would visit.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the IAEA board last week he hoped Iran would agree to a tougher regime of nuclear inspections to provide assurances that its nuclear program was peaceful.
Iran has said it has a "positive attitude" toward the tougher inspections but argues that it should receive access to nuclear technology in return.