VIENNA, June 14: Saudi Arabia has turned down a European Union request to allow full international nuclear inspections, saying it will only agree to special investigations if other countries exempted from them do the same, EU diplomats said.

Saudi Arabia is insisting on its right to sign a Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), which has been used since since 1971 to make inspections less burdensome in nations with small nuclear programs.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday that this protocol, which severely limits investigations by the UN nuclear watchdog, has been identified “as a weakness of the safeguards system” of inspections.

The European Union made a so-called diplomatic demarche on Sunday in Riyadh, asking Saudi Arabia to make a “gesture of good faith” to allow full inspections if it signed the protocol, to which it has the right, an EU diplomat told AFP.

But Saudi Arabia said it “was only ready to make such a gesture if other signatories to the SQP made such gestures also,” said the diplomat.—AFP