IAEA checks allow to rule out Iran nuclear programme military threat - Ryabkov

VIENNA, July 2. /TASS/. The current amount of inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) allows to rule out a military dimension of the Iran nuclear programme, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Thursday. "The measures stipulated in an additional protocol [to the agreement of IAEA guarantees] are quite sufficient so as to remove all the issues, which may still remain, on a possible military dimension," Ryabkov said. "The IAEA may gain access but the agency should provide information basing on which it intends to gain access," he said. "If proceed from the fact that the supplementary protocol will be used in Iran somehow, it means that the IAEA will work with Teheran without any additional decisions and will clarify the questions it has while cooperating with Teheran, motivating its motions and - within the framework of Iran’s commitments - receiving replies about the facilities it [IAEA] will come to, see and inspect," the Russian diplomat said adding "the supplementary protocol refers to nuclear activity." "It cannot help to verify whether torpedoes or a launching pad for spacecraft are constructed somewhere," Ryabkov said. "The difficulty is rooted in the fact that certain colleagues show an intention to blur the distinction and to use the supplementary protocol as a means of legitimate access to the issues unrelated to the nuclear activity." Read more