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Cairo
24 October 2009
A team of U.N. inspectors is heading to Iran to visit a recently
revealed nuclear site. International Atomic Energy Agency experts will
examine an unfinished uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of
Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes.
Iran's
English-language Press TV reports that International Atomic Energy
Agency inspectors are beginning a three-day visit to Iran, Saturday, to
examine the country's Fordoo nuclear enrichment facility.
Existence
of the underground facility - first revealed in September - raised
international suspicion over the extent and aim of the country's
nuclear program.
US President Barack Obama warned Iran, at the
time, that it would face "increased pressure" if it failed to reveal
all of its nuclear activities.
The Iranian News Network (IRINN)
says that the UN inspectors will spend two or three days in Iran to
complete their inspections of the new facility, which is still under
construction.
The Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali
Akbar Salehi, says that Tehran is allowing the UN inspectors to visit
the Fordoo enrichment facility to "prove Tehran's good will" and to
reassure the world community of its "peaceful nuclear activities."
Iran's
primary nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz has continued to operate
since 2007, despite sanctions by UN Security Council.
IAEA chief
Mohammed al-Baradei rebuked Iran for not disclosing the existence of
the Fordoo plant. The international community is worried that Tehran is
planning to install a new generation of sophisticated centrifuges to
enrich uranium at a much faster pace.
The US and other Western
powers are wary of Tehran's nuclear intentions, and suspect that Tehran
ultimately intends to produce nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.
Friday,
Tehran delayed its response to a proposal made by the US, France and
Russia to further enrich Tehran's existing stockpile of low-grade
uranium.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Asgar Soltaniyeh,
told Iran's Press TV that Tehran will respond to the offer, next week,
but that Tehran also expects the world powers to examine its own
counterproposals for enriching uranium:
"We are also waiting for
the other parties to study our proposals and to reflect the results of
their evaluation," he said. "At the same time, we have, in fact,
started studying the draft proposal, and we are in fact working and
elaborating on all details of these proposals, from technical aspects
and all other dimensions, and I will inform the director general of the
IAEA next week, as soon as I'm back to Vienna, about our evaluation."
U.S.
officials indicated that they're prepared to wait a few more days for
an Iranian response to the nuclear proposals, but that the Obama
administration expects concrete action and does not have unlimited
patience.
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