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News ID: 82985
Publish Date : 19 September 2020 - 21:44

Salehi: IAEA Not to Ask for New Inspections

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it will not ask for new inspections after visiting two locations in Iran in August, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on Saturday.
Ali Akbar Salehi said the UN nuclear agency inspectors had visited one of the two sites. "The first inspection was carried out and nothing special happened,” he said.
The date of the second inspection has been set, but it will not be made public, Salehi added.
IAEA officials, he said, have announced that they have no more demands after inspecting the two sites in Iran.
Iran announced in late August it would voluntarily allow the IAEA to visit the two sites following a visit to Tehran by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
He told IAEA board members on Monday he was hopeful Iran’s decision to voluntarily let inspectors into the two sites could lead to greater trust with Tehran.
Iran had been permitting IAEA inspectors in to current nuclear sites agreed upon in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but had argued the other two sites dated from before the deal so there was no reason to grant access.
The IAEA in March identified the two sites as places where Iran possibly stored and/or used undeclared nuclear material or undertook nuclear-related activities without declaring them to international observers. Grossi told the agency’s board of governors in Vienna that inspectors had already visited one site and would visit another later this month.
Iranian officials have said the country "acknowledges the IAEA’s right for asking legitimate questions, seeking transparency or demand of access for its mission,” but it "also emphasizes its right as a member state to request that the IAEA provide solid evidence and supporting documents and arguments in this regard.”
In the past, the UN nuclear agency has been given access to the sites it has demanded to visit, but after getting all questions sorted out it has raised new controversies later based on "fake” intelligence supplied by the occupying regime of Israel or terrorist groups such as the MKO.