Iran to U.N.: Revisiting military site useless

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's defense minister on Saturday said there was no need for U.N. nuclear inspectors to pay another visit to the Parchin military site, where the country is suspected of having tested components used in nuclear weapons.

Gen. Hossein Dehghan was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying the International Atomic Energy Agency had already been to the site southeast of Tehran and carried out tests there. "Besides, they have accepted that nothing happened in Parchin," he said.

He added that Iran would not make its nuclear scientists available to the inspectors. Inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have visited Parchin in the past but want to go back. In the past, Tehran has charged the agency with leaking information that led to the assassination of scientists.

Iran denies it has ever pursued nuclear weapons at Parchin, insisting it is a conventional military site.

Iran has vowed to cooperate with the the energy agency as part of talks with world powers aimed at reaching a lasting agreement on its nuclear program. Western nations have long suspected Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian program and have imposed crippling sanctions, which Iran now hopes to see lifted in exchange for curbing its nuclear activities.

Iran insists it has never worked on nuclear arms, describing such allegations as based on false intelligence from Israel, as well as the U.S. and its Western allies.

At the same time, Iran has been guarded when it comes to military matters, fearing that information about its conventional capabilities could be leaked to Israel or the U.S.

Earlier this month, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told the energy agency's head, Yukia Amano, that Iran's long-range missile program will not be part of the nuclear talks.

A Section on 08/24/2014

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