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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran bars two IAEA inspectors |
| 2010-06-22 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday, in a further escalation of an international dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the two were declared persona non-grata for authoring an "untruthful" report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the country's nuclear work. Salehi did not name them nor give details over what elements of the report he did not believe were accurate. The action against the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors comes less than a fortnight after the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran, followed soon after by unilateral punitive measures by the United States and the European Union. It also comes after the IAEA in its latest report raised fresh doubts about the true nature of Iran's nuclear program. "These two inspectors do not have the right to come to Iran because they leaked information before it was to be officially announced and they also filed a false report," Salehi was quoted by ISNA as saying. "In other words because of these two reasons it has led us to (bar) them from coming to Iran," he said, adding that Iran has asked the IAEA to replace the two inspectors with new officials, who would be allowed to visit the Islamic republic to check its nuclear facilities. "In the last session of the IAEA board of governors, we told the IAEA that the report filed by the two inspectors was incorrect and we objected to it," he said. "The report was totally wrong. Based on the safeguard agreement, we requested that these two inspectors do not come to Iran and be replaced with two others." Salehi said the decision is also an attempt to convince Iranian lawmakers that Tehran's "cooperation with the IAEA will only be within the framework of the safeguard agreement" between Iran and the UN nuclear body. |
| Posted by:Fred |