UN experts will inspect Iran's newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant on October 25, the IAEA nuclear agency chief said on Sunday, praising a shift "from conspiracy to co-operation" in Tehran's dealings with the West. The underground nuclear fuel facility near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom had been kept secret until Iran disclosed its existence last month, setting off an international furore.
Iran agreed with six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - in Geneva on Thursday to allow IAEA inspectors unfettered access to the plant in central Iran.
"IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's new enrichment facility, under construction in Qom, on 25th of October," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei told a joint news conference with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi.
"It is important for us to have comprehensive co-operation over the Qom site ... It is important for us to send our inspectors to assure ourselves that this facility is for peaceful purposes." The West suspects the Islamic state is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it needs the nuclear technology to generate power to meet booming domestic demand.
DISCLOSURE DISPUTE:
ElBaradei said the IAEA and Iran disagreed over the timing of the disclosure of the pilot enrichment plant. "Iran should have informed the IAEA the day they had decided to construct the facility," he said, referring to an IAEA transparency statute that was tightened in 1992 to require immediate notification of planned nuclear facilities.
Previously a state had to alert the IAEA of a new site just six months before introducing nuclear materials into it. But Salehi rejected this, saying: "Ever since the unfair entry of the UN Security Council into Iran's nuclear dossier, we reverted to the old arrangement in protest at UN sanctions." He said he would discuss details of the inspection with the IAEA in Vienna on October 19.
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