IAEA: UN to visit suspect Iranian site
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-05 20:38

VIENNA, Austria - Iran has agreed to give U.N. inspectors access to a huge military site that the United States alleges is linked to a secret nuclear weapons program, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005, at Vienna's International Center. [AP]

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told The Associated Press he expected his experts to visit the Parchin site "within days or weeks."

The agency has been pressing Tehran for months to be allowed to inspect the Parchin military complex, used by the Iranians to research, develop and produce ammunition, missiles and high explosives.

In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said that a specially secured site on the Parchin complex, about 20 miles southeast of Tehran, may be used in research on nuclear arms, specifically in making high explosive components for use in such weapons.

The IAEA has not found any firm evidence to challenge Iranian assertions that its military is not involved nuclear activities.

But an IAEA report in October expressed concern about published intelligence and media reports "relating to dual use equipment and materials which have applications ... in the nuclear military area."

Diplomats said that phrasing alluded to Parchin.

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