Nuclear sites tour to go ahead, says Iran

By AGENCIES VIENNA/TEHRAN: VIENNA/TEHRAN: A senior Iranian official said on Thursday a tour of nuclear sites in the country would go ahead as planned, after China effectively rejected Tehran’s invitation and Russia said it could never replace regular IAEA inspections. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he had not yet seen any official response from China or Russia to his invitation last week to some ambassadors accredited to the UN nuclear body. But he said other ambassadors would attend the Jan. 15-16 trip in Iran, which Iranian officials have described as a goodwill gesture and sign of openness regarding the Islamic state’s disputed nuclear program. Soltanieh earlier this week said envoys representing groupings of mainly developing countries and others would join the tour, including Egypt, Cuba, the Arab League as well as Syria and Venezuela. “Yes, we will definitely go tomorrow, they have all confirmed,” he told Reuters on Thursday. “The trip was originally planned for the Non-Aligned Movement, G77 and the Arab League ... it will be realized tomorrow exactly as was planned originally. “This time we also invited others to join us ... if at the last moment, if they are coming, (they are) welcome,” Soltanieh added. Iran's Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast spokesman said on Thursday the invitation to visit its nuclear facilities could be extended to foreign experts as well. “There are no restrictions on bringing nuclear experts as companions,” he said, in response to concerns by some country representatives that they didn’t have sufficient expertise for the trip. Mehmanparast said the invitation aimed at building trust ahead of talks Jan. 21 with world powers in Istanbul over Iran’s nuclear program that many fear might be aimed at developing weapons. Iran denies the charge. Iran’s invitation pointedly did not include the United States, one of its biggest critics internationally, and many saw this as an attempt to divide the nations conducting the nuclear talks. Already a number of countries have indicated they may pass on the tour. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton already has said EU would not attend the tour and the inspection of nuclear sites should be done by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Then on Thursday China also said it is unlikely to take up Iran’s offer. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday that “as our representative to Vienna is now at home, it will be difficult for him to visit Iran.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, said Thursday that the invitation “deserves attention as any gesture showing some extra openness in relations with the international community,” but maintained it could neither replace IAEA inspections or the upcoming Istanbul talks. “The Iranian nuclear program is quite an acute problem now both because we aren’t seeing due Iranian cooperation with the IAEA and also because excessive tensions are being fanned around it,” he added. Iran said the facilities to be visited include the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and the Arak site where it is building a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor. Both facilities are considered suspect by the West because they could be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Tehran’s refusal to shut them down has triggered UN Security Council sanctions. Iran invited several countries - including Russia, China and Hungary, which currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency - to tour the sites ahead of the next round of international talks on its disputed nuclear program. The invitation was also not extended to the three European countries - Britain, France and Germany - that have been more critical of Iran. Those three countries will also take part in the talks, together with the US, Russia and China.