UN nuke team will not visit sites: Iran

Delegation to only hold talks with Iranian officials

A UN team visiting Iran has no plans to inspect the country’s nuclear facilities and will only hold talks with officials in Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast cast doubt on how much the UN inspectors would be able to gauge whether Iran is moving ahead with its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The two-day visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency team, which started on Monday, is the second in less than a month amid growing concerns over alleged Iranian weapons experiments.

Iran denies charges by the West that it seeks atomic weapons, insisting its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, such as power generation.

Mehmanparast said the visiting IAEA team was made up of experts, not inspectors. He told reporters that the IAEA team was holding discussions on Tuesday in Tehran to prepare the ground for future cooperation between Iran and the UN watchdog. He said this cooperation is at its “best” level.

“The titles of the members of the visiting delegation is not inspectors. This is an expert delegation. The purpose of visit is not inspection,” said Mehmanparast. “The aim is to negotiate about cooperation between Iran and the agency and to set a framework for a continuation of the talks.”

Visits to individual Iranian nuclear sites were also not part of the IAEA earlier visit three weeks ago. But on Monday, Iranian state radio said the UN team had asked to visit the Parchin military complex outside Tehran, a known conventional arms facility that has been suspected as a secret weapons -making location and also to meet Iranian nuclear scientists involved in the country’s controversial programme.

“Iran’s cooperation with the (IAEA) agency continues and is at its best level,” added Mehmanparast.

Tehran sets terms for oil supply

Iran has laid out conditions for future oil exports to European countries after halting sales to Britain and France earlier this week, AP reports from Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday Iran seeks guarantees of payments, long term contracts and a ban on unilateral cancellation of contracts by buyers. He said all these should be considered if Europe wants continued trade and oil relations. He said Iran’s conditions were conveyed in a meeting with ambassadors of six European countries in Tehran.