Inspection of Military Sites in Iran is Thrown into Doubt

Rooz Online

Iranian officials say contrary to the statements made by the director general of the IAEA nuclear watchdog Amano Yukiya, Iran’s signing of the NPT Additional Protocols does not give the agency the right to visit the country’s military sites.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for Iran’s atomic energy agency told reporters that Amano has not created any obligations for Iran but only expressed his “opinion” regarding the additional protocol. According to Kamalvandi, “Access to sites of interest to the IAEA as defined in article 5 of the protocol require the presentation of evidence and documents and also the agency’s consideration of the country member’s considerations including security aspects.” He added, “Should the Islamic republic adhere to and implement the additional protocols it would view its responsibilities based on article 5.” He also said that the protocol also provided for the parties to access areas adjacent to interested sites as the two sides mutually agree.

Speaking to AP last week, Amano had announced that Iran had agreed in the April 2 Lausanne framework statement to implement NPT’s additional protocols and that should a final agreement be signed by the parties, IAEA inspectors could inspect military sites in Iran. He added, “In many other countries from time to time we request access to military sites when we have the reason to, so why not Iran? If we have a reason to request access, we will do so, and in principle Iran has to accept it.”

Iranian officials on the other hand have repeatedly stressed that they will not allow IAEA inspectors to visit the country’s military facilities. Even ayatollah Khamenei who makes the ultimate decisions on the nuclear talks has said “Absolutely no permission must be given to the security and defense fields on the pretext of monitoring. Military officials of the country have absolutely no permission to allow foreign inspectors to stop the expansion of the country’s defense. No unconventional special monitoring methods that can turn Iran into a special case in respect to monitoring is acceptable. Inspections must be limited to the traditional methods that are implemented in other countries.”

Hossein Salami, the deputy top commander of the Revolutionary Guards force has echoed these words. “Not only are foreigners not allowed to visit Iran’s military sites, we shall not allow them to even think about this. They shall not have such thoughts even in their imagination to inspect even our most ordinary military sites. Access to military bases must be denied.”

But despite such strong words, last week the spokesperson for the IAEA had said that Iran had defined a specific framework for a series of information and access in response to requests by Western countries. Earlier, Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of Iran’s atomic energy agency had made similar comments when he said, “Inspectors can take samples of places adjacent to non-nuclear sites.” Araghchi went a little further and has said that inspectors could possibly actually undertake managed visits of Iran’s military sites.

When Amano made his original remarks that Iran will accept giving access to military sites Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper – a mouthpiece for the hardliners – sharply criticized this adding that it was wrong to view the IAEA as the arbiter in the fulfillment of Iran’s obligations under a future agreement as the condition to lift the international economic sanctions. It concluded, “The IAEA should essentially be seen as a Western tool against the Islamic republic.”