Iran might allow NAM diplomats to visit Parchin

Iran indicated yesterday that diplomats visiting Tehran for this week's Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit might be allowed to inspect the Parchin military base, which UN nuclear experts say may have been used for nuclear-related explosives tests.

In reply to a question about the possibility of such a visit, Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh said that though it was not customary for such visits to be included at such meetings, Iran could be ready for such a visit at the discretion of authorities, the Iranian government-linked news agency Young Journalists Club reported.

The tentative offer came just three days following the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) once again requesting access to Parchin for its inspectors, at a meeting in Vienna.

Iran is hosting the NAM summit, which ends on Friday, at a time when the west is trying to isolate the Islamic Republic over suspicions it was seeking nuclear weapons capability. However, according to Tehran its atomic programme had only peaceful aims.

Any visit to Parchin by NAM representatives would hardly make a difference to western  concerns or those of the IAEA whose talks with the Iranians ended on Friday without agreement.

The UN body suspects that Iran had conducted explosives tests in a steel chamber at Parchin for the development of nuclear weapons, possibly a decade ago.