Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Promises access to Lavizan Nuclear Site
ranian Shiite women hold portraits of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad(L) and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni during weekly Friday prayers at Tehran University. Iran has promised to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit the former Lavizan military site in Tehran, diplomats told AFP.
AFP: Iran promises access to Lavizan nuclear site in Iran
Iran has promised to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit the former Lavizan military site in Tehran in what would be a key concession in the UN investigation of the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear program, diplomats told AFP.
The promise was made in a faxed letter received earlier this week in Vienna by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s deputy director for safeguards, Ollie Heinonen, who left Tuesday for Iran.
IAEA officials refused to comment on whether Heinonen, who is expected to return from Iran this weekend, has actually visited Lavizan, where the United States charges that the Islamic Republic did work related to atomic weapons.
Iran tried to acquire equipment that could have been used in uranium enrichment at the Lavizan site, the IAEA said in a report in November 2004.
Iran has removed buildings and topsoil from Lavizan but IAEA inspectors, who have already visited there, still want to take environmental samples in order to look for traces of uranium particles and want to investigate dual-use machines that were employed at Lavizan, and which could be either for civilian or weapons purposes.
Heinonen’s trip gives Tehran a last chance to comply with international inspections, ahead of an emergency IAEA meeting on the Iranian nuclear program in Vienna next Thursday.
And who doesn’t beleive that Iran has NOT cleansed this site?
“The Iranians chose their timing well,” one diplomat said, referring to Iran making concessions whenever it is faced with an international crackdown.
Non-proliferation analyst Gary Samore warned from the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago that Iran “uses cooperation as a tool.
Rather than fully cooperate they try to dole out small portions of cooperation and to hold out in other areas where they may be hiding things.”
The IAEA wants other assurances but this diplomacy is useless because the United States and Israel will NOT be stonewalled.
Will Iran blink or will the United States cleanse the Iranian nuclear sites with the B-2?
Stay tuned……
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The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image
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