Special to WorldTribune.com

Before the ink was even dry on the nuclear deal with world powers, Iran began sanitizing its nuclear military site at Parchin, U.S. intelligence officials said.

American intelligence officials informed Congress that satellite imagery in July showed Iran had moved bulldozers and other heavy machinery to the Parchin site.

Intelligence officials were said to be confident that the Iranian government was working to sanitize the site ahead of planned inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to a Bloomberg report.

The IAEA and Iran have a side agreement meant to resolve past suspicions about the Parchin site.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr told Bloomberg he was “familiar” with the intelligence report. “I think it’s up to the administration to draw their conclusions. Hopefully this is something they will speak on, since it is in many ways verified by commercial imagery. And their actions seem to be against the grain of the agreement.”

Burr said the sanitizing of the Parchin site is “a huge concern” for IAEA inspectors. “They are certainly not going to see the site that existed. Whether that’s a site that can be determined what it did, only the technical experts can do that.”

A senior U.S. intelligence official said the IAEA was familiar with the “sanitization efforts” and added that the Obama administration and the P5+1 world powers were confident the IAEA had the technical ability to detect past nuclear work at the site.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker told Bloomberg that the July activity at Parchin may not be a violation of the agreement but it does call into question Iran’s intention to be up front about the military aspect of its nuclear program.

“The intel briefing was troubling to me … some of the things that are happening, especially happening in such a blatant way,” Corker said. “Iran is going to know that we know.”

While President Barack Obama has been pushing Democrats in Congress not to oppose the Iran deal, at least one Democratic senator has said the Parchin revelations have put him in the undecided column.

“I have concerns about the vigorous efforts by Iran to sanitize Parchin,” Sen. Chris Coons said. “I’ve gotten some reassurance about how difficult it is for them to effectively conceal what we know to have been their illicit nuclear weapons developments there.

“We know what the Iranians did at Parchin.”

  IAEA, Report: Iran immediately acted to sanitize Parchin nuclear site after deal, Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. Chris Coons, Sen. Richard Burr, WorldTribune.com