Soltanieh: We Had No Arrangement With Agency For Parchin Visit

Tehran, Jan 19, IRNA – Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the IAEA said here Friday that there had been no arrangement for IAEA inspectors' visit of Parchin during their last week visit of Tehran, despite western media's propagation on failure of talks on that basis. Further focusing on negative western propagation, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh added, 'We were not supposed to reach a final agreement during this round of talks, including on arrangements for visiting Parchin, as we could begin talking in that respect after reaching a special agreement beyond the barrier of the nuclear-NPT, since Parchin is not a nuclear site.' He added, 'All the same, visiting that site and other issues of that nature would be possible after reaching that kind of agreement, and the agency, itself is better aware of this fact.' Soltanieh reiterated, 'The next round of talks with the representatives of the IAEA is scheduled right before the annual report of the agency's secretary general and also before the convening of the IAEA Board of Governors. Soltaniyeh said, 'Iran has thus far been involved in nuclear activities for half a century and has achieved noticeable objectives in this field, including enrichment, but meanwhile our country has always categorically denounced the usage of nuclear weapons.' *** Next round of Iran-IAEA talks scheduled for February 12th, 2013 Soltanieh added, 'The next round of Iran-IAEA talks is scheduled for February 12th, 2013, in Tehran.' He said, 'The last week round of talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency representatives in Tehran were held amid a friendly atmosphere and the talks were quite technical, legal and progressive.' Soltanieh reiterated, 'In this round of talks eight prominent IAEA experts were present and after two days of intensive work the two sides decided to continue their talks on February 12th.' Soltanieh, emphasizing that the talks were both sensitive and complicated, added, 'During the course of the past years the negotiations were over the text of a single page, or maximum over two or three pages, and there were times when the discussions over a single phrase, or a sentence would take five hours, because that sentence was related to our interests and our national security and there was need for dealing with it with a high level of sensitivity.' Soltanieh pointed out that the agency inspectors' inspections of the Iranian nuclear centers, including of the enrichment centers, have been going on incessantly during the course of the past 10 years, adding, 'There has not been even a single case that the inspection visa of an agency inspector would be delayed, but the ongoing negotiations are about the accusations and baseless claims that have created doubts and suspicions in the minds.' About the baseless nature of the made accusations he added, 'For instance, in the year 2005 we had allowed the agency inspectors to visit and inspect Parchin, after which it was proved that their claims in that respect were baseless; particularly since their claims were backed by the US and some other western countries' intelligence agencies.' The ambassador and permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the agency reiterated, 'In the course of the last week negotiations agreements were reached on certain issues, but we did not reach a final agreement, while if the agency would consider our basic and logical concerns reaching a final conclusion in the next round of talks would be quite possible.'/end