No Foreign Access to Iran’s Military Sites, Official Reiterates


No Foreign Access to Iran’s Military Sites, Official Reiterates

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian official underlined that foreigners would never be given access to the country’s military bases, deriding the notion that the UN nuclear watchdog sees no distinction between civilian and military sites in its inspections as a figment of Yukiya Amano’s imagination.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, Ali Akbar Velayati, a top international adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, said no foreigners, including International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, could ever have access to Iran’s military sites.

Asked about IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano’s recent comments that his agency does not distinguish between civilian or military sites in its inspections and would ask Iran for access when necessary, Velayati said, “In the previous agreements with the agency (IAEA) there was no talk of access to military sites at all; and if it were so, we wouldn’t have come to an agreement.”

He also described the IAEA chief’s claim about having the right to inspect Iran’s military sites as “an invention of Mr. Amano.”

Criticizing Amano for lack of independence in his decisions, Velayati said if the Japanese UN nuclear chief were really independent, he would push for an inspection of the Zionist regime of Israel’s nuclear facilities.

While the Israeli nuclear stockpile is the greatest threat to the Middle East, Amano is dragging his feet over the issue and has no clear answer for his conduct, he deplored.

Last month, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, travelled to Vienna to press the UN nuclear chief on her reading of Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), and asked if the IAEA planned to inspect Iranian military sites, something she has called for.

In a letter dated August 19 but released on August 23, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned about US lack of adherence to the nuclear deal.

Zarif has also said that Haley’s visit to the IAEA undermines "the independence and credibility" of IAEA inspectors.

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