More Problems From Iran

We continue to use the same words we’ve used for more than a year: “Watch Iran” — and the latest news is one more indication that Iran is not cooperating with the demands of the United States or European countries.



The latest: Iran has refused to let UN nuclear inspectors visit a suspect military site. The Guardian reports:

Iran severely restricted access to a suspect military site in Parchin late last year and has refused a new request by UN nuclear inspectors to revisit the facility, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday.



Pierre Goldschmidt, a deputy secretary general of the IAEA, also told the agency’s board that Iran was continuing to build a heavy water reactor in the city of Arak which can produce plutonium, despite agency requests to cease construction. He added that Iran had effectively blocked further agency investigations of the purchase of equipment that could be used for a weapons programme by refusing to provide further information on the equipment.



The comments were part of a brief update by Mr Goldschmidt on Iran’s nuclear record after more than two years of examination by the agency, after the revelation of nearly 20 years of clandestine activities which have led to concerns of a possible attempt to make nuclear arms.



While Iran says it wants enrichment technology only to generate power, Washington argues the process can also produce weapons-grade material for nuclear warheads.

This comes on the heels of President Bush’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed one day later with Iran and Russia ignoring U.S. objections and signing a nuclear fuel agreement to help bring Tehran’s first reactor online by mid-2006.