Iran says the "Zionist" IAEA is misinterpreting its own protocols

Parchin

From the Tehran Times:

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has said that the Additional Protocol allows “general access” which does not “mean access” to military sites.

He made the remarks during an interview with Al-Alam new network aired on Sunday.

Access to non-nuclear sites mentioned in the Additional Protocol is “general” and if a country does give access to a certain non-nuclear site due to some reasons, it can give access to neighboring areas for sampling, he stated.

Kamalvandi also stated that the protocol does not allow interviewing scientists.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that the IAEA should “substantiate the existing records”, because most of its records are prepared by the intelligence services of the Zionist regime of Israel.

The nuclear official also said that Iran will not accept a protocol that allows access to military facilities.

He went on to say that there are some “broad interpretations” on the protocol that seem to be aimed at undermining the nuclear talks between Iran and the major powers.

There were similar articles coming out of Iran this weekend.

The IAEA disagrees:

VIENNA — The chief U.N. nuclear inspector on Monday rejected a ban by Iran's supreme leader blocking U.N. experts from seeing Iranian military sites or meeting with Iranian atomic scientists, deepening a confrontation with Tehran over how much openness the country must accept under any nuclear deal.

Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month declared that "no inspection of any military site and interview with nuclear scientists will be allowed," and Iranian negotiators have since said Khamenei's ban is indisputable.

Amano, however, challenged that, saying Iran already has committed to permit "access to sites, documents (and) people" under a preliminary agreement that outlined components of the deal now being negotiated.

Coming just weeks ahead of a June 30 target date for a nuclear deal, Amano's comments were certain to further inflame the controversy between Iran and the international community over the degree of intrusiveness the nuclear agreement will give the IAEA.

To be precise, while the IAEA's 1997 model Additional Protocol seems to allow more expansive inspections, no one has ever published the specific version Iran signed to in 2003.