Ban on two UN inspectors is ”notice” to IAEA chief: Iran

TEHRAN: Iran”s barring of two nuclear inspectors serves as “notice” to the chief of the UN atomic body to manage the agency professionally, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.

“This action (banning the inspectors from entering Iran) is in reality a regulatory notice to (Yukiya) Amano to be careful so that the agency”s inspectors do not violate the international entity”s charter,” state news agency IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying.

“Amano should manage the agency professionally,” he said, referring to the chief of the UN atomic body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran”s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Monday that two IAEA inspectors had been barred from entering the country “because they leaked information before it was to be officially announced and they also filed a false report” about Tehran”s nuclear programme.

He said Iran had told the IAEA board of governors at its last meeting that the report filed by the two inspectors was “totally wrong… and that these two inspectors must not come back to Iran and should be replaced by two others.”

Iran”s arch-foe the United States voiced concern at Tehran”s decision to block the inspectors” entry.

Iran won’t retreat on nuclear rights: Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Thursday Tehran would not give up the country’s right to nuclear technology, but said he was ready to co-operate on nuclear fuel.

“As long as this government is in power, it will not retreat one iota on the undeniable rights of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northeastern city of Mashhad, broadcast live on state television. He said the provision of nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor was an opportunity for Iran to evaluate the “honesty” of world powers and the U.N. nuclear agency watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “We welcome cooperation on nuclear fuel, power plants and technology and we are ready to cooperate,” Ahmadinejad added.

On the other hand, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s mission to a newly disclosed plant in Iran said the inspectors had what he termed a good trip but he declined to give any details.

The site, which Iran revealed last month, has heightened Western fears of a covert programme to develop atomic bombs. Tehran says its nuclear programme is only for power generation. “We visited the Fordo enrichment plant. Now we are going to analyse the data and the director-general will then report in due time,” International Atomic Energy Agency official Herman Nackaerts told reporters, after the four-day trip, on arrival at Vienna airport with the three other members of his team. He declined to say whether the team of experts had discovered anything surprising or if they had been able to carry out a full visit of the site, built inside a mountain about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will issue his next report on Iran around mid-November.

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Iran won’t retreat on nuclear rights: Ahmadinejad was first posted on October 29, 2009 at 9:57 pm.