TEHRAN – Iran opened the doors of its two atomic facilities to foreign diplomats Saturday, in a rare move to drum up support just days before talks with world powers about its sensitive nuclear programme.
The two-day tour to the heavy water installation in Arak and the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz – both located in central Iran – was snubbed by Tehran’s key allies China and Russia, as well as the European Union.
Iran had invited several envoys to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as Hungary, the holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, to take part in the tour.
However, the United States, Britain, France and Germany were not invited, according to diplomatic sources.
“The NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) troika, the Group of 77 members, the Arab League, Syria, Venezuela and Oman, are participating in the visit,” Iran’s IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told state media.
State news agency IRNA reported that the group had left for Arak to tour the still-unfinished facility. Russia and China appear to have declined to participate in the visit, as indicated by comments from their capitals.
“(China’s) Vienna representative is still at home right now, so it will be difficult for him to go,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Thursday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that while Iran’s invitation “deserved attention,” such a trip could not replace IAEA inspections, indicating Moscow would refrain from participating.
Soltanieh said Moscow and Beijing had “warmly welcomed the invitation” but were unable to participate in the visit as “they had problems with the timing.” The European Union declined the invitation outright, saying the IAEA “are the people who have to inspect the Iranian nuclear facilities.”
Soltanieh said the visit was “for agency (IAEA) ambassadors and not linked to agency inspections”, adding the EU had missed a “historic opportunity.”
“As a goodwill gesture, the Islamic Republic of Iran invited some countries, including the European Union. But it (EU) did not use this historic opportunity of cooperation and witnessing the Islamic republic’s peaceful activities,” IRNA quoted him as saying by IRNA.
“(But) we respect their decision.”
Meanwhile, foreign minister and atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran would reveal new achievements during the visit to the Arak facility. “Today, at the heavy water installation in Arak, we will unveil several new nuclear achievements in the field of medicine,” he said.
“This achievement will be unveiled in the presence of guests who we have invited from different countries and international organisations.” Iran has pitched the trip as a confidence-building measure.
“No country in the world will show its nuclear installations to others and this is a sign that Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful,” Salehi told ISNA on Friday.
Such visits to Iran’s atomic sites are infrequent. The last trip that Tehran arranged for members of the IAEA was in February 2007.
