Iran Bars Nuclear Inspectors

Iran recently prevented U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering an underground uranium enrichment facility, possibly to disguise the amount of progress the nation has made at the site, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 22).

Iran has been installing hundreds of enrichment centrifuges at Natanz this year, working toward an interim goal of 3,000 machines.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, has complained that Iran has not allowed inspectors to install all the verification equipment they need to monitor the site.

In his most recent report on Iran, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that all the agency demands had to be met by the time 500 centrifuges were installed.

When inspectors visited the site Saturday, they were denied entry to the centrifuge chamber, AFP reported.

One diplomat said Iran wanted to hide the fact “that it now has more than 500 centrifuges functioning underground.”

Other diplomats, however, said the access denial could be a minor matter that might be resolved this week when more inspectors return to the site, possibly today (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 19).

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