IAEA Says Iran Talks Fail on Denied Request

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Ladane Nasseri - Feb 22, 2012 2:11 PM GMT+0700

The United Nation’s atomic watchdog said it failed to win access to Iran’s suspected nuclear-related military base, as an Iranian general warned his country may launch a pre-emptive strike to protect its facilities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran refused permission to visit the Parchin military base during two days of talks that ended yesterday. The meetings were aimed at defusing tensions over a possible weapons component to the Islamic republic’s atomic program, which the U.S. and Israel have signaled may require an attack to prevent.

“It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement posted on the organization’s Facebook page. “We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached.”

The risk of a military conflict in a region holding half the world’s oil reserves was underscored yesterday when an Iranian general said his nation would consider pre-emptive action if it is threatened.

“We will no more wait to see enemy action against us,” the state-run Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Hejazi, deputy head of the general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, as saying. His warning came after Iran sent the European Union a letter last week asking for negotiations at the “earliest opportunity” on the nuclear issue.

Oil Prices

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Iranian officials and the chief inspectors discussed grounds for cooperation and that further talks will be held, according to the state-run Press TV news channel. He didn’t elaborate.

Oil prices rose to a nine-month high yesterday, in part on tensions over Iran, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Crude for March delivery gained $2.60 to $105.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since May 4.

Iran on Feb. 20 said it had stopped selling crude to France and Britain in retaliation for a European Union decision to stop buying its oil as of July 1. The EU and U.S. are tightening sanctions in order to pressure Iran’s leaders to make concessions on its nuclear program, which the country says is for civilian purposes.

Uranium Dispute

Two former UN weapons inspectors yesterday said it isn’t too late for diplomacy to resolve the dispute, and warned that a strike would probably compel Iran to expel the IAEA and deprive the international community of surveillance. That in turn would allow Iran’s leaders to allegedly resume their pursuit of an atomic bomb.

“The worst thing I can imagine right now is something short of war that causes the Iranians to kick the IAEA out,” Robert Kelley, a nuclear scientist and former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said at a forum in Washington.

He was accompanied by former IAEA head Hans Blix, who said inspections were essential in monitoring Iran’s work.

The dispute centers around Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which can be used as fuel for a power plant or at higher concentrations form the core of a bomb. All of Iran’s declared atomic material is under IAEA seal, and its known nuclear sites are monitored by cameras and subject to regular inspections.

The agency said in a Nov. 8 report that Iran allegedly tested explosives designed for its Shahab-3 missile warhead in Marivan in 2003. Uranium traces could still be found if they were used in the experiments, according to Kelley and Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

‘Sleeping Dog’

“Iran should allow the IAEA to go to Marivan and take samples at the site where Iran supposedly did their full-scale high-explosive tests,” said Kelley, who helped debunk forged intelligence before the 2003 Iraq War. “The agency needs to put Marivan first because it is the sleeping dog in the last report.”

Israeli leaders say there is limited time left to carry out an effective strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities before they are secure from attack. The countries accuse each other of bombings and assassinations, with Israel blaming Iran for car bomb attacks last week in India and Georgia and the Persian Gulf nation blaming Israel for the murder of several of its nuclear scientists.

To contact the reporters on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net; Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net; Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net