Iran allowed IAEA team to inspect nuclear sites, says IAEA envoy

Aug 23, 2011, 18:40 GMT

Tehran - Iran has allowed a team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear sites, the country's IAEA envoy said Tuesday.

Ali-Asghar Soltanieh told the Fars news agency that the IAEA team, led by nuclear safeguards division head Herman Nackaerts, visited several Iranian nuclear sites last week.

They included the Bushehr power plant, the uranium conversion and enrichment sites of Isfahan and Natanz, the new enrichment site of Fordo and the heavy water research facility in Arak, Soltanieh said.

The Bushehr plant is located in the south and the other sites in central Iran.

The visit of the IAEA team coincided with a meeting between the foreign ministers of Iran and Russia, Ali-Akbar Salehi and Sergei Lavrov, last week in Moscow.

Lavrov has been spearheading a diplomatic campaign to bring Iran back to the negotiating table with Russia, China, France, the United States, Britain and Germany.

Russia supports a step-by-step approach to the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear facilities, and Lavrov had reportedly asked Salehi to make a first move.

Tehran is interested in resuming talks with the six world powers but demands acknowledgement of Iran's right to pursue a civil nuclear programme as a major condition.

The six powers fear that Iran might use its nuclear programmes to enrich enough weapons-grade radioactive materials to build an atomic weapon.

Tehran has so far rejected the charges categorically, saying its nuclear programmes are solely civilian and only aimed at diversifying the country's energy sources.

Read more about IAEA