IAEA trashes Iran Cooperation Pact, like petulant child, over precondition for access to Parchin

IAEA refuses Iran cooperation pact
By Gareth Porter – 15 May, 2012 – Asia Times

WASHINGTON – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano has signaled that there will be no agreement with Iran in meetings in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday on the terms for Iranian cooperation in clarifying the issue of alleged nuclear weapons work.

Amano indicated in an interview with The Daily Beast on Friday that he intended to hold up an agreement on Iranian cooperation in responding to allegations of military involvement in its nuclear program until the IAEA was allowed to visit to Parchin, the military complex about 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran.

Amano told journalist Michael Adler the “standoff” over access to Parchin “has become like a symbol” and vowed to “pursue this objective until there’s a concrete result”.

Adler cited an “informed source” as saying that the IAEA rejected any linkage between a visit to Parchin and the rest of the plan for cooperation being negotiated, and insists that a visit to Parchin must come first before any agreement.

But the actual draft negotiating text of the agreement on “Clarification of Unresolved Issues” with Iran’s proposed changes from the original IAEA proposal, which has been posted on the website of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, shows that the major conflict over their cooperation was whether the process had a definite endpoint, not access to Parchin.

Iran’s permanent representative to the IAEA, ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh, has said that Iran was willing to grant access to Parchin, but only under an agreed plan for Iranian cooperation with the IAEA.

Amano and Western officials have justified the insistence on immediate access to the Parchin site to investigate an alleged explosive containment vessel for testing related to a nuclear weapon by suggesting that satellite photographs showed Iran may be trying to “clean up” the site.

Amano hinted at that accusation in the interview with Adler without making it explicitly. “We have information and there are some moves – there’s something moving out there,” he said. “Going there soon is better.” …more