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The Iranians stepped up their rejection of inspections by the United Nations of military sites suspected of conducting tests used for nuclear weapons, accusing the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of compromising Iranian scientists that were later assassinated. The claim, from IRGC Deputy Commander Brigadier General Rasoul Sanayee Rad in a report by the Fars News Agency, supports the Iranian refusal to trust the IAEA with inspecting their military sites.
“The reality is that the record we have from the IAEA in our mind … makes us feel lack of trust in the UN body,” said Sanayee Rad, further saying the IAEA leaked information that eventually reached assassins who killed the Iranian nuclear scientists. The accusation is perhaps the strongest sign yet that Iran will reject the inspections of their sites, considered part of the process to verify whether or not Iran has worked on a nuclear weapons program.
The IAEA has long desired to inspect the sites and the Iranian refusal raises questions about what Iran is hiding there. Iran claims invasive site visits would compromise their military.
The showdown over the details of an agreement between Iran and the international community aiming to verify the peaceful nature of the former’s nuclear program comes as the deadline for such a deal is roughly six weeks away.
The sides have established an initial framework, but disagreements remain ahead of the June 30 target for signing a final accord. The US isn’t officially saying how likely it is that an agreement will be reached.
“I’m not going to take new odds or issue new odds on it,” said US spokesperson Jeff Rathke in comments released by the State Department on Friday.
“We’ve said all along that if Iran wants to prove that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, that it’s within Iran’s power to do so… this depends on Iran’s commitment to demonstrating verifiably that its nuclear program is peaceful.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, May 17, 2015)