IAEA Says Iran Talks Fail on Denied Request

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Iran to defuse tensions over an alleged nuclear-weapons program, were denied access to a military base and said the talks “couldn’t finalize a way forward.”

The IAEA inspectors were refused permission to visit the Parchin base during two days of talks that ended yesterday. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told state television that officials discussed grounds for cooperation and further talks will be held. He didn’t elaborate.

“We couldn’t get access and we couldn’t finalize a way forward,” the IAEA’s chief inspector, Herman Nackaerts, told journalists in Vienna today upon his return from Tehran.

Allegations about the possible true aim of Iran’s nuclear program have led to tightening economic sanctions and the threat of military strikes. At stake for Iran is the collapse of its $475 billion economy, which may undermine the regime that swept to power 33 years ago; while the U.S. and its allies seek to avert a nuclear arms race in a region that’s home to 54 percent of global oil reserves.

“It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement posted on the organization’s Facebook page. “We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast underlined yesterday that the high-level IAEA officials were in Iran for talks and their trip was separate from routine inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities that the agency conducts.

‘Enemy Action’

The risk of a military conflict was underscored yesterday when an Iranian general said his nation would consider pre- emptive action if it is threatened.

“We will no more wait to see enemy action against us,” the state-run Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Hejazi, deputy head of the general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, as saying. Iranian officials had underlined in recent weeks that they would not attack another country first and their actions would be solely retaliatory.

Oil for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as much as 16 cents to $106.41 a barrel, the highest price since May 5, and was at $105.94 at 9:13 a.m. London time. Prices have gained 13 percent in the past year.

‘Best Relations’

Iran said on Feb. 20 said it had stopped selling crude to France and Britain in retaliation for a European Union decision to stop buying its oil as of July 1. The EU and U.S. are tightening sanctions in order to pressure Iran’s leaders to make concessions on its nuclear program, which the country says is for civilian purposes.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said his country wanted the “best relations possible” with the European Union and urged the bloc to revisit its hostile policies. Iran sent the EU a letter last week asking for negotiations at the “earliest opportunity.”

Two former UN weapons inspectors said yesterday it isn’t too late for diplomacy to resolve the dispute. They warned that a strike would probably compel Iran to expel the IAEA and deprive the international community of surveillance of a nuclear program that western nations say is being used to develop weapons.

IAEA Seal

“The worst thing I can imagine right now is something short of war that causes the Iranians to kick the IAEA out,” Robert Kelley, a nuclear scientist and former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said at a forum in Washington.

He was accompanied by former IAEA head Hans Blix, who said inspections were essential in monitoring Iran’s work.

The dispute centers around Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which can be used as fuel for a power plant or at higher concentrations to form a bomb. All of Iran’s declared atomic material is under IAEA seal, and its known nuclear sites are monitored by cameras and subject to regular inspections.

The agency said in a Nov. 8 report that Iran allegedly tested explosives designed for its Shahab-3 missile warhead in Marivan in 2003. Uranium traces could still be found if they were used in the experiments, according to Kelley and Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

“Iran should allow the IAEA to go to Marivan and take samples at the site where Iran supposedly did their full-scale high-explosive tests,” said Kelley, who helped debunk forged intelligence before the 2003 Iraq War. “The agency needs to put Marivan first because it is the sleeping dog in the last report.”

Israeli leaders say there is limited time left to carry out an effective strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities before they are secure from attack. The countries accuse each other of bombings and assassinations, with Israel blaming Iran for car bomb attacks last week in India and Georgia and the Persian Gulf nation blaming Israel for the murder of several of its nuclear scientists.

Bloomberg