Tehran Brushes Off Nuclear Plant Concerns

Iran on Friday dismissed U.S. accusations that two nuclear plants it is building could be used to make nuclear weapons, but American officials expressed “grave concerns” and suggested that the Iranians were trying to conceal some of the facilities.

Washington’s worries about Iran’s nuclear activities came on the heels of North Korea’s announcement that it was restarting a mothballed nuclear reactor and as United Nations arms experts combed Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction. Iran, Iraq and North Korea make up what President Bush called an “axis of evil.”

U.S. officials disputed assertions by Tehran that the two sites near the west-central Iranian cities of Natanz and Arak, seen in commercial satellite photographs, were for peaceful purposes.

“We don’t have any hidden atomic activities. All our nuclear activities are for nonmilitary fields,” Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said in Tehran, adding that U.N. inspectors had been invited to visit the sites.

But White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, “We do continue to have grave concerns about it.

“The suspect uranium-enrichment plant could be used to produce highly enriched uranium for weapons. The heavy-water plant could support a reactor for producing weapons-grade plutonium,” Fleischer told reporters.

The State Department said Iran was trying to hide parts of the nuclear facility near Natanz by burying some of the buildings underground.

The White House called on the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to assess both facilities.

The IAEA said it planned to inspect them in February.

“This is not a surprise to us,” IAEA chief Mohammed Baradei said in Vienna.

The IAEA first raised the issue with Tehran in August, Baradei said.

“Whether the program is for peaceful purposes or not, this is obviously for us to verify.... Iran affirmed that all their activities are for a peaceful purpose,” he said.

Iran invited IAEA inspectors after informing the agency in September of plans to build nuclear plants and related fuel facilities over the next 20 years, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.