Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) with UN nuclear chief Yukiya Amano. (AP/Vahid Salemi)
Senior atomic experts believe that Iran had been covering up evidence of nuclear development prior to signing the nuclear deal with the six global nations, Fox News reveals.
There is reason to suspect that Iran has attempted to “sanitize” a sensitive military site ahead of a visit by international inspectors, a Fox News report indicates.
Iran granted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to the Parchin site just last month.
The IAIA had previously confirmed that Parchin contained a so-called “containment vessel,” or special chamber, for testing nuclear equipment, including triggers to detonate a warhead, Fox reports. However, “when the IAIA toured the site for its upcoming report on Iran’s past and present program, the containment facility and equipment were gone, making it that much harder to test for radioactive residue.”
The source was not authorized to speak on the record, Fox adds.
Following his visit to Tehran last month, the head of IAEA, Director-General Yukiya Amano, confirmed that renovations had taken place at Parchin and that equipment was missing, but provided no further detail, the Fox report continues.
“We entered a building which the Agency had previously only been able to observe using satellite imagery. Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work. There was no equipment in the building,” Amano said.
“Our experts will now analyze this information and we will have discussions with Iran in the coming weeks, as foreseen in the Road-Map,” Amano added. The “Road-Map” refers to the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the US-led P5+1 nations.
“Iran needs to explain why it renovated an empty building over and over and over again,” Olli Heinonen, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a former IAEA deputy director, told Fox News.
Furthermore, trace detection for radioactive material is not reliable, Heinonen said. “You can repaint, and pour concrete, to hide radioactive residue or simulate the tests with non-nuclear material.”
By: United with Israel Staff
With files from Fox News
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