TEHRAN (NNN-XINHUA) - The office of Iran's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representative in Vienna said today that Iran will allow the UN nuclear watchdog experts to visit Parchin military base, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
"The fact that Parchin is a military site and access to a military site is a time consuming process and it cannot be frequently visited ... therefore once again (the site) will be accessed (to the IAEA experts)," said the IAEA in a statement, adding that the visit can be made when an agreement on a modality is reached.
"The IAEA member states are expected to support this process and avoid the measures that may weaken the successful outcomes," it said.
It further said that in 2005 and following a modality agreed between Iran and the IAEA, the IAEA officials visited Parchin twice and the former IAEA chief announced that the issues on Parchin were solved, according to ISNA.
An earlier IAEA report said that some "activities" were done in Parchin in southeastern Tehran, which was suspected as possible controversial weapon development.
The IAEA head said yesterday, Iran had stepped up its nuclear enrichment activities, as its monthly production of 20-percent- purity uranium had tripled since Nov.
Speaking at the quarterly meeting of the IAEA board, Yukiya Amano said the UN nuclear watchdog had "serious concerns" that Iran's heightened enrichment activities might relate to the development of nuclear weapons.
Amano also highlighted Iran's repeated refusal to allow inspectors into the Parchin military site, in which simulated nuclear warhead tests allegedly took place.
Earlier, Ali Asgar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to IAEA, told reporters that access to Parchin would only be granted if Iran and the IAEA agree on certain conditions.
Despite that the recent two rounds of talks with Iran produced no substantive results, the IAEA chief said the agency would continue to address the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and in a consultative spirit.
"The basic objective is to resolve all outstanding issues, in particular those related to possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme, and restore confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities without further delay," Amano said. --NNN-XINHUA
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