Special to WorldTribune.com
Official Washington appeared stunned and GOP presidential candidates were outraged by a report that Iran will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect the Parchin military facility believed to be the center of its nuclear weapons program.
A report by the Associated Press on the secret side deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency said that IAEA staff will be reduced to monitoring Iranian personnel as they inspect the Parchin site.
The deal is separate from the nuclear deal now before Congress. Details of the side agreement have been denied to members of Congress who have requested them.
According to the Aug. 19 report by AP, the IAEA will allow Iran to use its own experts and equipment at the Parchin nuclear site. U.S., Israeli and other intelligence and the IAEA as well suspect that Iran may have experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at Parchin.
An Obama administration official defended the IAEA-Iran arrangement.
“We are confident in the Agency’s technical plans for investigating the possible military dimensions of Iran’s former program, issues that in some cases date back more than a decade,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said. “Just as importantly, the IAEA is comfortable with arrangements, which are unique to the Agency’s investigation of Iran’s historical activities. When it comes to monitoring Iran’s behavior going forward, the IAEA has separately developed the most robust inspection regime ever peacefully negotiated to ensure Iran’s current program remains exclusively peaceful.”
The IAEA has said that satellite images show possible attempts by Teheran to sanitize the site.
Iran will provide IAEA experts with photos and videos of locations said to be linked to alleged nuclear weapons work, “taking into account military concerns,” the report said, suggesting that — beyond being barred from physically visiting the site — the agency won’t receive photo or video information from areas Teheran says are off-limits because they have military significance.
IAEA experts would normally take environmental samples for evidence of any weapons development work, but the side deal stipulates that Iranian technicians will do the sampling.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said the report only “reinforces” concerns about the broader agreement.
“Trusting Iran to inspect its own nuclear site and report to the U.N. in an open and transparent way is remarkably naïve and incredibly reckless,” Cornyn said. “It is time for the Obama administration to come clean with the American people and provide all information about these secret side agreements between Iran and the IAEA.”
“Beyond that, we are not going to comment on a purported draft IAEA document.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, among others in the administration, had previously stressed the importance of Iran disclosing past nuclear military activity as part of any deal.
Report that nuclear deal authorizes Iran to inspect Parchin site defended by Obama’s NSC added by World Tribune on
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