UN nuclear inspectors expected in Iran on Saturday

UN nuclear inspectors are expected to arrive in Iran on Saturday to inspect the country's second uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom, national media reported on Friday.

The official IRNA news agency said the delegation from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), would spend two or three days in Iran.

Talks between Iran and three world powers on its nuclear program ended on Wednesday with a draft deal, whose exact nature remains unclear, but is believed to involve Iranian uranium exports to Russia and France. The uranium would be enriched in Russia and then sent to France to prepare it for use in an Iranian reactor. It cannot be weaponized.

The Vienna talks, aimed at easing international suspicions of a covert Iranian atomic weapons program, involved Iran, the UN, the U.S., Russia and France.

Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The country recently admitted to having a second uranium enrichment site in Qom, sparking international calls for harsher sanctions.

The Islamic Republic has consistently denied it is seeking to make nuclear weapons, but has insisted on its right to a peaceful program aimed at generating electricity.

SOURCE: RIA Novosti

DATE: October 23, 2009

Topics: Iran


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