The head of the UN nuclear watchdog was due to arrive in Tehran on Saturday to discuss the implementation of the July 14 roadmap agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Tehran's nuclear activities.
Iran denies the charge that its nuclear program may have any military aspects, saying the work is entirely peaceful.
The spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran rejected western media reports about the purpose of the visit, saying, "[Yukiya] Amano's trip is aimed at helping implement the roadmap," IRNA reported.
Behrouz Kamalvandi said, "Some international media that follow certain objectives publish skewed reports, which is not a new method."
The AP quoted two unnamed diplomats as saying on Friday that IAEA director general intends to push for interviews with scientists linked to Tehran's nuclear program.
Top officials in Tehran have turned down the IAEA’s previous requests for interviews with nuclear scientists.
A final UN assessment is due in December, and that will feed into the larger nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany), helping to lift sanctions on Iran.
IAEA spokesman Frederik Dahl had declined on Friday to go into details about the IAEA chief’s agenda. Fars News Agency reported on Saturday that Amano will attend a meeting of the special parliamentary commission on the nuclear accord today.
Arrangement on Parchin
The diplomats said Amano also will be discussing an inspection of Parchin, a site where the UN nuclear agency alleges experiments that could be relevant for any effort to develop atomic weapons may have taken place.
The diplomats, who are accredited to the IAEA, demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss Amano’s agenda.
Tehran says IAEA suspicions are based on false intelligence from the US, Israel and other adversaries. In refusing access to scientists the agency is interested in, Iran cites past assassinations of several experts who worked on peaceful nuclear activities.
After allowing a previous visit to Parchin that the IAEA now claims went to a false area unconnected to the alleged experiments, Tehran has kept the IAEA away from the sprawling military site southeast of Tehran.
A draft document seen by the AP stipulates that Iranian staff will collect environmental samples at the site after providing the IAEA with photos and videos of the areas where the samples will be collected. It makes no mention of any physical IAEA presence near the sampling sites.
White House and US State Department officials have confirmed the existence of the draft. They say they are satisfied that the arrangements for Parchin will allow the IAEA to do its job but have refused demands from the US Congress and others to make it public, saying they are governed by confidentiality rules agreed to by Iran and the agency. The IAEA has also refused to detail the arrangement, saying it meets its stringent inspection requirements.
In a tweet last week, chief Iranian IAEA delegate Reza Najafi said Parchin “is a military site and Iran will not let any inspector go there.”
