Iran continues nuclear tour with showing its enrichment site
By DPA, IANSSunday, January 16, 2011
TEHRAN - Iran Sunday continued a tour for several envoys of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and showed them its uranium enrichment site in Natanz, central Iran.
The news network Khabar reported that the IAEA envoys are to tour both the facilities for the 3.5 and the 20 percent uranium enrichment.
Tehran said the tour is a sign of goodwill and proof that the Islamic state is conducting its nuclear work transparently and not pursuing a secret military programme, as suspected in the West.
There has also been an invitation to European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to visit the nuclear sites before the Istanbul talks on behalf of the six negotiators.
Ashton — and the six — however rejected the invitation, saying IAEA experts should conduct inspections, not diplomats.
Iran’s IAEA ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Khabar that there was no need for the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog to attend this tour as the IAEA inspectors are already and constantly at the sites and their cameras monitoring all activities.
Therefore, Soltanieh added, it would have been a unique opportunity for Ashton and the 5+1 group to reassure themselves of Iran’s transparent nuclear activities and their attendance would have also had a positive impact on the Istanbul talks.
The tour comes ahead of the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US, scheduled for Jan 21 and 22 in Istanbul.
Atomic chief Ali-Akbar Salehi and Soltanieh accompanied the delegation Saturday to the site of the unfinished heavy water reactor of Arak, and Sunday to the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
The tour was reportedly attended by envoys from Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Oman, Syria, Venezuela, Uzbekistan and the Arab League.
Iran claims that the envoys from the Arab League and Non-Aligned Movement represent 120 countries which approve of Iran’s peaceful nuclear programmes.
But they have no role in the negotiation process and cannot have much influence on probable future UN sanction resolutions against the Islamic state.
