Iran bans nuclear inspectors

Just hours after Iran was rebuked by the UN atomic energy agency for its failure to report all past nuclear activities at the end of a days long meeting, Tehran announced an indefinite freeze on the IAEA inspectors’ visits.

Kenneth Brill, the chief delegate representing United States, condemned Iran’s decision.

“This is a measure of their full cooperation – they’re postponing the very thing that they are called on to do by their obligations,” he told reporters yesterday.

Brill said he suspected the freeze was an attempt by Iran to gain time and hide covert activities before allowing agency inspectors access to new sites.

Iran, which insists its nuclear activities are purely peaceful, was at the centre of the key IAEA meeting. The resolution it adopted defers the threat of Security Council action against the country until the board of governors meets again in June.

Still, much of the resolution’s wording was critical, reflecting shared concerns by most board members about Iran’s nuclear activities and its uneven record of cooperation with the IAEA.

The board meeting and inspection freeze were expected to figure in discussions starting Monday between International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and senior US officials. ElBaradei, who flew to Washington today, was expected to meet with US President George W. Bush.

Both Bush and ElBaradei have spoken out recently on the need to tighten export controls and other measures meant to prevent the black market trade in nuclear technology and know-how.

The resolution notes “with serious concern” that the board still does not have “the complete and final picture of Iran’s past and present nuclear program,” needed by the IAEA to dispel suspicions that Iran had a nuclear weapons agenda.

The resolution praised Iran’s increased openness to inspections but said it “deplores” recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities that Tehran had failed to report.

Iran reacted angrily to the resolution. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Iran’s capital, Tehran today that no time had been set on when to allow inspectors back into the country.

“This (freeze) was a response to the resolution because (its) tone was unfair and insulting. We don’t allow anybody to talk to us in such language,” Asefi said.

An agreement that Iran signed last year enables UN inspectors to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities at any time and without notice.

Iran’s move to freeze such inspections could be a huge obstacle to the agency’s efforts to deliver a judgment by June on the nature of Tehran’s nuclear activities – if the ban on visits remains in place for any length of time, diplomats familiar with the work of IAEA said.

At the IAEA, director general Mohamed ElBaradei downplayed the announcement of the freeze, saying he believed it would end soon.

“I’m pretty confident Iran will understand that we need to go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple of days,” he told reporters.