Inviting IAEA head to visit Iran's nuclear facilities is positive step

Iran's inviting the IAEA head to visit its nuclear facilities can be viewed as a positive step in terms of transparency of Iran's nuclear program, said the Head of the Iranian-American Council Hooshang Amirahmadi.

"I don’t know if it [Amano's visit] can solve the nuclear program of Iran, but obviously it isn’t attempt on the side of Iran to make its nuclear program more transparent. It will at least help it to some extent because Amano goes to Iran and sees it, Amirahmadi told Trend by telephone from Washington. - It is certainly a positive step in the right direction. This direction is a direction of making it more transparent".

Tuesday, June 21, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydun Abbasi-Davani invited IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to visit nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic, RBC reported with reference to Reuters.

Abbasi announced this proposal following a meeting held in Vienna with his counterpart at the conference on nuclear safety. According to Abbasi, he invited Amano and his colleagues to visit any nuclear facilities of the country as they consider necessary." He also added that both sides expressed their willingness to resolve their problems through dialogue.

However, according to Amirahmadi, it is clear that the invitation from Iran is not an attempt to ensure transparency of its nuclear development, which is one of the requirements of Western countries.Nevertheless, the expert said, it is extremely important for Iran to maintain good relations with the IAEA.

"In the past, Iran was ready to implement the Additional Protocol and allow the IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities, and the IAEA has been happy in the past with Iran’s cooperation, except that the IAEA keeps saying it doesn’t know what it hasn’t seen everything which basically meaning it needed it knows what is going on or not going on, said Amirahmadi. But overall the IAEA seems to be happy with the access it has to the Iran’s nuclear program."

Iranian nuclear program has caused concern since 2003, when the IAEA became aware of its concealed activity. In late 2003, Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and voluntarily announced about the suspension of uranium enrichment. However, it returned to this activity. Iran insists that as a party to the NPT it has the full right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Enriched uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons. However, it is necessary as fuel for nuclear power plants. Several states, including the U.S., believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and want to prevent this development.


/Trend/