Jafari made the remarks during an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency published on Sunday in reference to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano’s most recent report on Iran’s nuclear program, which was released on August 30.
The UN nuclear watchdog has claimed that Iran might have been trying to sanitize the Parchin site, which is located southeast of the city of Tehran, of any incriminating evidence of explosive tests that would indicate efforts to design nuclear weapons. However, Iran has dismissed the claim, calling it “baseless”.
Part of the IAEA report reads, “It is a matter of concern that the activities which have taken place since February 2012 at the location within the Parchin site to which the Agency has requested access will have an adverse impact on the Agency’s ability to undertake effective verification. The Agency reiterates its request for access to that location without further delay.”
Tehran rejected requests by IAEA delegations to inspect the Parchin site during their visits to Iran from January 29 to 31 and February 21 to 22 and has made it clear that access to the site would not be possible before an agreement is reached on a structured approach.
During the interview, Jafari said, “In one of the clauses of the report, the issue of inspecting the Parchin site has been stated once again. But the point that should be taken into consideration is that no nuclear activity has been carried out at the Parchin site and the Parchin site is a military site. And permission to inspect military centers has not been granted to IAEA inspectors under any of the articles of” the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“In another part of the agency’s report, it has been stated that components of Iran’s nuclear activities are in the military sphere, and it has attempted to give the impression that Iran’s nuclear activities are military through vague and unclear (phrases), such as ‘it may be’ and similar (phrases), but raising the issue, when it has not been proven yet, has no legal basis,” he added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian MP stated that the IAEA is being influenced by political issues and is controlled by the global arrogance, which is an expression used in Iran to describe the forces of imperialism.
mehr/281