Iran’s Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan has said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has no need to inspect the Parchin military base.
“The IAEA inspectors have visited Parchin before, and we have addressed their questions. Therefore, we think there is no need for giving further access to the site,” Dehqan said.
IAEA reports have never shown any suspicious activity at Parchin, the minister said ahead of the Aug 25 deadline for Iran to provide a new set of information on its nuclear programme to the agency, Xinhua reported.
Although investigation in Parchin is not included in the agreement between Iran and the IAEA, visits to the military base has been demanded by the agency to certify the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.
On Jan 13, 2005, IAEA inspectors were allowed access to the military base as a confidence-building measure.
Since then, the IAEA has requested further inspections of the site, but has been denied access by the Iranian government.
Parchin has long been suspected to be a nuclear bomb testing site.
