Iran lets UN inspectors see Lavisan ex-atomic site

Mon Jan 30, 7:14 AM ET

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has allowed U.N. nuclear inspectors to check equipment from a former military site in an apparent effort to avert a crackdown by the U.N. atomic watchdog (IAEA) this week, a senior diplomat said on Monday.

The diplomat, informed about IAEA affairs but asking not to be identified, said Iran had kept a promise to provide access to the Lavisan site at the weekend for visiting inspectors under IAEA safeguards division chief Olli Heinonen.

Lack of IAEA access to Lavisan had loomed large in a U.S.-EU push to have the nuclear agency's board vote on Thursday to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over suspicions it is secretly trying to develop atomic bombs.

Iran bulldozed a military-linked physics research center at Lavisan in 2004 and stripped the ground around it before IAEA investigators could test for particles on equipment they believed was obtained by Iran for use in enriching uranium.

The senior diplomat said Heinonen's seven-member team had visited sites related to Lavisan and seen related equipment.

The results of whatever environmental samples Heinonen's team took will not be known for some weeks, he told Reuters.

Machines operated at Lavisan could have been used to produce components either for civilian atomic energy or atomic warheads.

The senior diplomat had said earlier that IAEA access to Lavisan "would be a very positive move and help Iran head off tough action" by the IAEA by bolstering Russian and Chinese arguments against getting the Security Council involved.

Visiting Lavisan-related sites could fulfil a key condition set by IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei to clear up doubts that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

Iran says it wants nuclear energy only for electricity.

But after 18 years of hiding nuclear work from the IAEA, three years of inconclusive agency probes and Iran's January 9 move to restart atomic fuel research, European Union powers called an emergency IAEA board meeting for February 2.

The senior diplomat said Iran's decision to open Lavisan equipment for examination echoed past behavior in which it has given 11th-hour concessions when facing imminent IAEA action.

To update board members, Heinonen went to Iran last week to check on Lavisan and seek explanations from Tehran about alleged nuclear black-market activity and a document diplomats said described how to design the core of an atomic bomb.

ElBaradei rebuffed Western calls to provide a full report on alleged Iranian defiance of nuclear non-proliferation rules for the February 2 board session, saying he had given Tehran until the next regular meeting in March to clear up a range of questions.

Russia and China oppose the Western thrust to refer Tehran to the Security Council, calling it premature. The EU has been reworking a resolution for Thursday's IAEA meeting in search of consensus with key non-Western member states, diplomats say.

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