Iran to Let IAEA Enter Military Site

Iran has agreed to grant access to a military site the United States says is linked to a secret nuclear weapons program, and the first U.N. inspectors could arrive there “within days,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview Wednesday.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog group has been pressing Tehran for months for access to the Parchin military complex, used to research, develop and produce ammunition, missiles and high explosives.

In leaks to media last year, U.S. intelligence officials said that a specially secured site within the Parchin complex, 20 miles southeast of Tehran, was possibly being used in research on making high-explosive components for use in nuclear weapons.

The agency has not found any firm evidence to challenge Iran’s assertions that it is not involved in nuclear weapon activities.

But an IAEA report in October expressed concern about published intelligence and media reports “relating to dual use equipment and materials which have applications ... in the nuclear military area.”

Diplomats accredited to the agency said that the phrasing alluded to Parchin.

Iran has been the main focus of the IAEA since mid-2002, after revelations of two secret nuclear facilities -- a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water production plant near Arak.

That led to an IAEA investigation, which turned up nearly two decades of covert nuclear activities, including a large-scale uranium enrichment program and suspicious “dual use” experiments that could be linked to weapons programs.

ElBaradei also suggested Wednesday that the time was approaching to wind down the intense focus on Iran’s activities and treat Tehran as just another IAEA member.

He said his agency was monitoring an Iranian commitment made in November to suspend uranium enrichment activities that could be used toward nuclear weapons development. He said the agreement had not been violated.