UN gets access to Iran plant

IRAN, under heavy US-led pressure to curb its nuclear programme, has opened a high-security military site to UN nuclear inspectors who also met senior personnel at the facility.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the approval was given to the inspectors after they requested to visit the Parchin military site, about 20 miles south-east of Tehran, which US officials claim may be part of Iran’s nuclear arms research programme.

“They talked with our friends this time. What they have done in Iran has been in the framework of the NPT (nuclear nonproliferation treaty) and safeguards,” he said without elaborating.