VIENNA — Iran is signaling that it will cooperate this weekend with U.N. experts visiting the country to investigate alleged nuclear weapons activity it has steadfastly denied, a potentially promising step in a probe that has been stalled for six years.
But with Iran still denying any attempt to make such arms, the investigators must tread carefully.
As the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy team arrived in Tehran on Friday, the state IRNA news agency cited Iranian atomic energy organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying his country is ready to answer all questions raised by the U.N. agency.
IRNA did not elaborate, and such pledges have been made before. However, a senior diplomat from an IAEA member nation cited a ranking Iranian official as telling him and other senior diplomats that Iran was ready to engage on the weapons program suspicions with the U.N. experts.
Iran has denied any interest in — or work on — nuclear weapons since the IAEA started to focus on its atomic activities. Specific attempts to probe the alleged weapons program first launched in 2007 have made little progress.
Iran appears to be suggesting it will go into detail on the big topic, raising hopes for a series of increasingly deeper investigations. The U.S. and its allies are pushing the IAEA for progress. At the same time, too much pressure on Iran at the weekend talks between the agency and Iranian officials could push Tehran into its shell of secrecy.
That, in turn, might impact negatively on parallel talks between Iran and six world powers seeking to eliminate fears that Tehran might use its nuclear programs to make weapons. It has agreed to curb its atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Those talks are off to a promising start, with both sides planning to meet Feb. 18 to try to translate an interim deal into a permanent agreement. But Olli Heinonen, who formerly headed the IAEA’s Iran probe, says that a final deal can be sealed “only if uncertainties over Iran’s military nuclear capability are properly addressed.”
In Tehran, meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged officials Saturday not to pin hopes for economic recovery on the sanctions relief from the nuclear deal reached with world powers.
