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 Without International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmation
that Iran is keeping promises enshrined in its landmark July 14
nuclear accord with six world powers, Tehran will not be granted
much-needed relief from sanctions.
According to data given to the IAEA by some member countries,
Parchin might have housed hydrodynamic tests to assess how specific
materials react under high pressure, such as in a nuclear explosion.
According to an unconfirmed Associated Press report citing a draft
document, the IAEA would not send its own inspectors into Parchin
but would instead get data from Iran on the site.
Asked if Iran would be allowed to conduct inspections itself to
address concerns about Parchin, the IAEA said it was legally bound
to keep its arrangements with Tehran confidential.
"The separate arrangements of the roadmap are consistent with the
IAEA verification practice and they meet the IAEA requirements,"
agency spokesman Serge Gas said in a statement.
 Under a roadmap accord Iran reached with the IAEA alongside the July
14 political deal, the Islamic Republic is required to give the IAEA
enough information about its past nuclear program to allow the
Vienna-based watchdog to write a report on the issue by year-end.
Iran has long stonewalled an IAEA investigation into the possible
military aspects of its past nuclear activities, relating mostly to
the period before 2003, saying the agency's data for its
investigation was fabricated.
Iran says its nuclear program has no military dimensions.
The IAEA, which says it takes no information at face value, has
repeatedly asked for fresh access to Parchin.
"The agency has to keep such arrangements confidential to work
properly, as it does with all other states," a Vienna-based diplomat
told Reuters on Thursday.
"We have confidence that the agency will carry out its work
effectively on this although we understand the discussions on how to
best implement the roadmap are still ongoing."
"JUST SPECULATION," IRAN SAYS
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency, told
Tasnim news agency: "Reports in media about the agreement between
Iran and IAEA are just speculation."
He added: "The IAEA has been committed so far to this mutual accord
and not released any classified document or information."
Under the Vienna accord, Iran must put verifiable limits on its
uranium enrichment program to ensure it is used only for civilian
energy purposes in exchange for a removal of international sanctions
crippling its oil-based economy.
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U.S. President Barack Obama has said the deal is the "strongest
non-proliferation agreement ever negotiated" and that if it was
scuttled, Iran's path toward a nuclear bomb would accelerate and war
would likely break out.
Obama is trying to gather 34 votes in the Senate to ensure Congress
cannot kill the Iran nuclear deal. Twenty-five senators, all
Democrats, have said they will support it. Opposition Republicans
are strongly opposed.
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who chairs a committee
overseeing Washington's financial contribution to the IAEA, has said
he will push to stop such money if the agency does not publish its
arrangements with Iran.
"Why haven't these secret side agreements been provided to Congress
and the American people for review? Why should Iran be trusted to
carry out its own nuclear inspections at a military site it tried to
hide from the world?" said John Boehner, the Republican speaker of
the U.S. House of Representatives.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vigorously campaigned
against the deal, saying it endangers Israel because its terms are
too weak to prevent Iran eventually developing a nuclear weapon, and
he has lobbied Congress hard to reject it.
"One must welcome this global innovation and outside-the-box
thinking," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, tasked by Netanyahu to
speak out on the Iranian nuclear issue, said in a sarcastic
reference to the report that the IAEA would not directly inspect the
Parchin site.
"One can only wonder if the Iranian inspectors will also have to
wait 24 days before being able to visit the site and look for
incriminating evidence?" he said, referring to a clause in the deal
on the notice period for intrusive IAEA inspections.
(Additonal reporting by Michael Shields in Vienna and Jeffrey Heller
in Jerusalem; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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