Iran’s nuclear work will go on, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday after UN inspectors left Tehran following a visit that failed to lift their suspicions of atomic weapons research. “The Iranian nation has never been seeking an atomic weapon and never will be. It will prove to the world that a nuclear weapon cannot create supremacy,” Khamenei told Iranian nuclear scientists, according to a government statement. “The path of scientific development, particularly the nuclear field, should continue strongly and seriously,” he said.
“Pressure, sanctions, threats and assassinations will not bear any fruit and Iran will continue its path of scientific development,” Khamenei said. The forceful restatement of Iran’s longheld position came after a five-strong delegation from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency left empty-handed following two days of talks focusing on suspected military aspects of the country’s nuclear programme. The delegation’s leader, UN chief nuclear inspector Herman Nackaerts, said on his return to Vienna that, although it had “approached this trip in a constructive spirit,” no agreement with the Iranians on elucidating worrisome activities was forthcoming.
Russia warns against ‘catastrophic’ attack on Iran
Russia on Wednesday warned a strike against Iran could have “catastrophic” consequences and urged nations not to draw early conclusions from this week’s failed mission by UN nuclear experts. “The scenario of military action against Iran would be catastrophic for the region and possibly the whole system of international relations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a news conference. His comments came after a five-strong delegation from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) left empty-handed following two days of talks focusing on suspected military aspects of the country’s nuclear programme.
Chief nuclear inspector Herman Nackaerts said the team “could not get access” during the visit to Iran’s military site in Parchin where suspected nuclear warhead design experiments were conducted. Gatilov urged nations to wait for the IAEA’s official report before deciding to condemn Iran for failing to cooperate with the agency. A spokesman for the foreign ministry separately said that inspectors had visited Parchin on at least one previous occasion and had not yet fully explained why they needed to visit the site again.
Despite requests, “we could not get access” during the visit to Iran’s military site in Parchin where suspected nuclear warhead design experiments were conducted, Nackaerts said. “We could not formalise the way forward. We will now report to the (IAEA) director general and later to the board of governors,” Nackaerts said. “Then we will have to see what are the next steps.” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement that “it is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin” during this latest visit, or a previous one at the end of January. An IAEA spokeswoman confirmed that “at this point in time, there is no agreement on further discussions” with Iran.
That contrasted with an assertion by Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, who was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying discussions “would continue.” The trip was seen as an important precursor to a possible resumption of talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany — which broke down in Turkey 13 months ago.
Western suspicion that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons research were crystallised — although not entirely validated — in a November IAEA report. Since the report’s release, Europe and the United States have been ramping up economic sanctions on Iran, targeting its vital oil exports. The measures add to four sets of UN sanctions punishing the Islamic republic for not giving timely explanations of its activities. This week, it deployed warplanes, missiles and radar facilities in exercises to boost the air defences of its nuclear facilities. Iran has also announced a halt to the limited amount of oil it exported to Britain and France in retaliation for an EU embargo on its oil due to come fully into effect in July.
