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IAEA chief rejects Israel’s demand to inspect secret Iran nuclear site

IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano refused Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call to inspect Iran’s secret atomic energy site. 

By: World Israel News Staff

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday rejected Israel’s demand to inspect a newly-exposed site in Iran related to its nuclear program, saying that “the Agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu challenged the IAEA at the United Nations General Assembly last week, revealing that Iran stored “massive amounts of equipment and materiel” in a Tehran neighborhood, information it had shared with the IAEA six weeks ago. The IAEA, however, failed to act, Netanyahu said.

“I have a message to the head of the IAEA, Mr. Yukiya Amano,” Netanyahu said. “I believe he wants to do the right thing. Well Mr. Amano, do the right thing. Go inspect this atomic warehouse. Immediately. Before the Iranians finish clearing it out.”

Responding to Netanyahu, Amano said, “In line with established safeguards practices, all information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information to arrive at an independent assessment based on the Agency’s own expertise.”

Yukiya defended the agency’s protocols of operation, saying “evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities for Iran remain ongoing.”

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The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, is in charge of making sure Iran complies with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“The Agency continues to evaluate Iran’s declarations under the Additional Protocol, and has conducted complementary accesses under the Additional Protocol to all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit,” he added.

Tehran is reportedly racing to conceal the materials and any evidence that the site ever existed.