Iran Said to Pave Over Site Linked to Nuclear Talks
Source: New York Times
Iran has paved over large swaths of a restricted military base that United Nations nuclear inspectors have sought unsuccessfully to visit for years because they suspect it was once a laboratory for testing weapons triggers, an antiproliferation monitoring group said Thursday in a study of new satellite imagery, suggesting the Iranians had tried to sanitize the site.
The group, the Institute for Science and International Security, said in the study that the asphalt paving, as seen in satellite photographs dated Aug. 13, appeared to be part of the final stages of alterations at the site, Parchin, about 20 miles south of Tehran. The alterations have been under way for about 18 months, based on comparisons with previous satellite imagery, the group said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear-monitoring arm of the United Nations, has been engaged in a protracted negotiation with Iran over gaining access to the site because of suspicions that it may have been once used for nuclear-related activities. Iran has insisted such suspicions are specious and based on fabricated evidence, but has so far balked at requests by agency inspectors to investigate for themselves.
If anything, the suspicions of I.A.E.A. inspectors may have been deepened by what has appeared to be an Iranian attempt to erase vestiges of military work while negotiations were under way on the parameters of a visit. The agency’s director general, Yukiya Amano, has publicly expressed frustration over Iran’s unwillingness to grant access.
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/world/middleeast/iran-said-to-pave-over-site-linked-to-nuclear-talks.html?_r=0
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