Iran Claims Right to Reject Nuclear Inspectors | Middle East | English

Iran Claims Right to Reject Nuclear Inspectors
Elizabeth Arrott | Cairo 07 September 2010
Head of the Iran Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, right, speaks with media during a press conference with cleric Gholamali Safaei Bushehri, representative of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran
Photo: AP

The Iranian government says it has the right to decide which international inspectors will be allowed to monitor its nuclear facilities. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tehran could reject the inspectors on the basis of their previous activities. The official, Ramin Mahmanparast, was echoing comments by the nation's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who noted Iran had accepted alternate inspectors provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Salehi was quoted as saying that two inspectors rejected by Iran had filed false reports on Iran's nuclear program. A report released Monday by the IAEA said Iran's objections to certain inspectors are complicating efforts to investigate its nuclear program. The program is at the core of an international dispute over whether the activities have a military component.