UN atomic watchdog chief proposes Iran visit

The head of the UN atomic watchdog said Thursday he has proposed to Iran a "high-level" visit to Tehran to discuss the body's damning new report on the country's nuclear programme. "I wrote to Iran’s Vice-President and President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Dr Abbasi, on 2 November proposing to send a high-level team to Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano said. Speaking at the start of a two-day meeting of the IAEA's board of governors expected to be dominated by the new report, Amano said he hoped the visit would "clarify the issues" in the Vienna-based agency's assessment. "I hope a suitable date can be agreed soon," he said, according to a text of his speech made available at http://www.iaea.org/press/. "It is essential that any such mission should be well planned and that it should address the issues contained in my report," he said. "I ask Iran to engage substantively with the agency without delay and provide the requested clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme." He added: "I remain willing to engage in dialogue with Iran. Last week, the agency came the closest yet to accusing Iran outright of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, in a report immediately rejected by the Islamic republic as "baseless." Based on a mass of information from different sources, the IAEA said it was able to build an overall "credible" impression that Tehran "carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device." The evidence included a bus-sized steel container visible by satellite for explosives testing and weapons design work, including examining how to arm a Shahab-3 missile, capable of reaching Israel, with a nuclear warhead. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday Tehran would send "an analytical letter with logical and rational responses" to the report.