(Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog has not yet given good enough reasons to visit an Iranian site where it suspects there may have been experiments for developing nuclear weapons, Iranian media said.
A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week said satellite images showed “extensive activities” at the Parchin complex, at the centre of Western suspicions that Iran is developing atom bombs. Tehran denies any such plan.
Iranian officials have refused access to Parchin, southeast of Tehran, saying it is a military site.
“The reasons and document have still not been presented by the agency to convince us to give permission for this visit,” the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency on Saturday.
Six world powers failed to convince Iran last week to halt its most sensitive nuclear work, but they will meet again in Moscow next month to try to end a standoff that has raised fears of a new war.
Last November, an IAEA report found that Iran had built a large containment vessel in 2000 at Parchin in which to conduct tests that the agency said were “strong indicators of possible weapon development.”
Iran’s Abbasi-Davani accused unnamed countries of putting pressure on the IAEA to visit Parchin.
After a visit to Tehran last week, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said he was close to an agreement with Iran on inspection visits to nuclear facilities but some differences remained.
The US-based Institute for Science and International Security thinktank has said there is concern Iran may be trying to cleanse the building at Parchin to remove any evidence of tests there.
(Editing by Matthew Tostevin)