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IAEA Inspectors Visit Parchin
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors yesterday visited the Iranian military complex suspected by the United States of sheltering secret nuclear weapons work, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Jan. 12). “A team of IAEA inspectors today carried out an inspection at Parchin, including the taking of environmental samples,” agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky announced yesterday. The one-day Parchin visit “went as planned,” according to a diplomat close to the agency, adding that inspectors gained access to buildings they sought to view. “There was no restriction of any kind” in the area where the IAEA inspectors were, the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Jan. 13). Meanwhile a European Union official said today that two days of EU trade negotiations with Iran went well this week, AFP reported. “The Iranians showed themselves to be very engaged, very interested, the tone was very good,” she told AFP. “What was important for these two days was the tone, not the substance” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Jan. 14). Elsewhere, Israeli officials for the first time publicly expressed concerns over EU efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported. “They (Europeans) achieved an agreement now with Iran. We do not like it very much but still it is much better than it was before,” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Wednesday. “We believe that it should be moved, should be transferred to the (United Nations) Security Council, in order to stop the Iranians from what they are doing,” Shalom added. Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, chief of Israeli military intelligence, predicted Tuesday that Iran would be capable of producing atomic weapons within months. “According to estimates, Iran is not currently capable of enriching uranium to build a nuclear bomb, but it is only half a year away from achieving such independent capability, if it is not stopped by the West,” Zeevi-Farkash said. “The Iranians can reach Portugal with nuclear weapons,” he said of the range of Iranian missiles. “This doesn’t worry the Europeans. They tell me that during the Soviet regime as well they were under a nuclear threat, and I try to explain to them that Iran is a different story” (Dan Williams, Reuters, Jan. 13).
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