Global Security Newswire

Iran appears to have accelerated work at its Parchin military installation, possibly in a bid to eliminate remnants of atomic efforts that a recent U.N. report suggests were carried out at the site, the Associated Press on Monday quoted a government source as saying (see GSN, Nov. 18).

Personnel with two other governments verified that Nov. 4-5 photographs taken from space suggest an increased level of movement around the facility, but they did not back the first source's assertion, based on findings by his government, that Iran was pushing to "clean" the facility of indications of nuclear activity (see GSN, Nov. 9).

"Freight trucks, special haulage vehicles and cranes were seen entering and leaving ... (and) some equipment and dangerous materials were removed from the site," says a document provided by the first source.

Intelligence from International Atomic Energy Agency member states suggests that Iran "constructed a large explosives containment vessel" at the Parchin site that could be used for nuclear-related testing, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a safeguards report issued earlier this month (see GSN, Nov. 9). Tehran has consistently denied assertions that its nuclear program is geared toward weapons development.

The International Atomic Energy Agency received notice of the development near the end of last week, and an informed high-level envoy said the U.N. organization was carefully scrutinizing all locations of concern referred to in the safeguards document.

Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Asghar Soltanieh called the allegations "childish stories."

The envoy on Friday said Tehran would postpone indefinitely plans for IAEA safeguards chief Herman Nackaerts to tour Iranian atomic sites. Nackaerts could have requested to visit the Parchin site, which IAEA inspectors traveled to on two occasions in 2005 (George Jahn, Associated Press/Google News, Nov. 21).

Meanwhile, the United States was set on Monday to call Iran's central bank an area of "primary money-laundering concern" without imposing concrete penalties on the institution, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"This allows foreign countries to think about how to protect themselves and wean themselves off Iranian oil in a way that doesn't disrupt the energy markets," said one high-level U.S. government source provided information on the move. "This says: 'You should be thinking quite seriously about cutting off your ties to the central bank."

In addition, Washington is expected to blacklist "dozens" of Iranian firms and groups said to be involved in uranium enrichment centrifuge refinement, work on the Arak heavy-water reactor and other atomic efforts in the Persian Gulf state. Additional penalties would target transactions relevant the production and overseas transfer of Iranian petroleum products (Solomon/MacDonald, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 21).

"The isolation that Iran is undergoing right now ... really is unprecedented," Agence France-Presse quoted U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon as saying. "They see themselves wholly isolated" (Stephen Collinson, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 19).

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday pressed Tehran "to respond positively" to calls by the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany for new discussions of Iranian atomic efforts (Agence France-Presse II/Khaleej Times, Nov. 19). On the same day, Switzerland unveiled new penalties targeting a number of personnel within the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (Agence France-Presse III/Daily Star, Nov. 18).