Construction Works at Parchin No Obstacle to IAEA Verification

(FNA)- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi dismissed western media reports claiming that the construction work at Parchin military site near Tehran has prevented the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from conducting a precise verification of Iran's nuclear activities.

"Parchin is a very big military complex which includes numerous administrative, military and training buildings," Araqchi said on Saturday.

Noting that construction operations in a region like Parchin is natural and normal, he said, "Certainly, the measures, including the construction works in Parchin don’t disturb the IAEA's responsibilities and affairs."

Araqchi reiterated that the recent construction operations at Parchin don’t disturb the "IAEA's measures and verification".

The construction work at Parchin has been underway for some days in the past two months, it has turned into a pretext for the western media hype against Iran.

On August 6, Iran's permanent mission at the UN in New York in a statement dismissed as "baseless" the claims raised by certain US media about Tehran's cleansing operations at Parchin military site, saying that the construction operations underway there are nothing special.

"The Parchin military zone is a vast area which includes different military, industrial, administrative and residential districts and therefore, construction operations in there are natural and common," the statement said.

It added that in recent days, one of the roads in front of Mamlou dam near Parchin was slightly destroyed which is now being repaired using heavy road construction machinery.

Stressing that Iran had never sought military use of the nuclear energy, the statement said the claims raised by certain US media were nothing new and were baseless.

Parchin military center, which contains no nuclear or nuclear-related facilities or installations, has already been visited twice by the IAEA inspection teams, headed by former deputy director general of the world body when Mohamed ElBaradei was the IAEA Director General.

After the second visit, the IAEA's former deputy director-general said the Parchin issue joined the history.

Also, on September 20, IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano was granted access to Parchin as efforts are stepped up to resolve by year end "ambiguities" about Iran's past nuclear activities.

"Amano paid a formal visit to Parchin, and visited some workshops about which there has been some false information," Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said at the time.

The Vienna-based IAEA also confirmed the site visit.

After the visit the western media raised different allegations against Tehran again which were all rejected by the Iranian officials.

Amano and Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) signed a roadmap of cooperation in Vienna on July 14.

The roadmap contains secret arrangements stated in one or two documents entailing on the methods to be used by the two sides in their cooperation.

Senior Iranian nuclear officials have said that all IAEA member states have such secret agreements and the UN nuclear watchdog is duty bound to keep them secret to any third party individual or state.

After the roadmap was signed, Salehi announced that the new agreement would fully settle all unresolved issues pertaining to Tehran's nuclear activities in the past.

"All past issues will be resolved completely after Iran and the Agency adopt some measures," Salehi told reporters after signing an agreement called the Iran-IAEA Cooperation 'Roadmap'.

He said that all agreements, including the measures decided for Parchin military site, will be implemented with full respect to Iran's redlines.

Iran had earlier announced that inspection of the country's military sites are one of its redlines.

"I hope that a new chapter in relations and cooperation between Iran and the IAEA will start after the settlement of the past issues," Salehi added.

Salehi made the remarks in Vienna just a short time after diplomats acknowledged a sum-up agreement had been made between world powers and Iran.