VIENNA, March 31: The UN nuclear watchdog has alleged in an internal report that some inspections in Iran were "managed" by the Iranians, who refused to let inspectors take pictures with UN cameras or use their own electronic devices.
In February, the Iranian delegation to the UN in Vienna circulated a paper to the 35 nations on the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors commenting on the IAEA's report on inspections of Iran's nuclear sites.
In this paper, Iran said that in January it had granted IAEA inspectors "full and unrestricted access" to workshops that manufactured parts for centrifuges, which are capable of producing bomb-grade material. The inspectors were taking environmental samples to test for traces of enriched uranium.
But the IAEA said its access was not unrestricted. "The agency's visit was 'managed' by the Iranians in the sense that the inspectors were not permitted to take pictures with IAEA cameras or use their own electronic equipment," the IAEA document said.
The samples were taken as part of an IAEA investigation into the origins of bomb-grade uranium found at several sites in Iran. The IAEA document also says there are still questions about the reason why around 1990 Iran experimented with producing polonium-210, a substance that has few civilian uses but can be used to spark a chain reaction in a nuclear bomb. -Reuters
