IAEA not allowed access to Iran's military sites

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will not be granted access to Iran's military and missile sites, Iran's atomic chief was quoted as saying by Press TV on Saturday. "The agency's inspectors have no right and (no) responsibility to do it. There is no authority in the world for inspecting such facilities, and there is no treaty in that regard either," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali-Akbar Salehi said Saturday. "The IAEA is not in a position to conduct such inspections," he said, dismissing some media reports which quoted him as saying that the agency's inspectors will visit Iran's missile sites. According to an agreement between Iran and the IAEA reached on Nov. 11, Iran would allow the UN nuclear watchdog's inspectors to visit central Arak heavy water plant and Gachin yellow cake mine in the south. A team of inspectors of the IAEA visited Arak heavy water reactor on Dec. 8. A letter sent to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on behalf of the P5+1 group, concerning the Joint Plan of Action agreed with Iran on Nov. 24 in Geneva, highlighted the important role of the IAEA in the verification of the nuclear-related measures which were agreed in Geneva. Under the Geneva deal, the United States and its allies shall afford Iran with limited relief of sanctions on its oil, gold, petrochemicals, auto industries and civil aviation with an estimated value of about 7 billion U.S. dollars. In exchange, Iran shall halt uranium enrichment above 5 percent and neutralizing its stockpile of near 20 percent uranium by means of dilution or converting. It also agreed not to advance its activities at Natanz and Fordow enrichment plants and at the Arak reactor. Regarding the Nov. 11 agreement, Amano said "some points are not mentioned which had been referred to in our previous reports." his remarks were an allusion to the limited access to Iran's nuclear infrastructure, pointing out that the deal omitted inspection of Iran's Parchin military complex, to which the IAEA has repeatedly requested access.