IAEA inspectors to visit Iran's nuclear facilities

TEHRAN (Xinhua) - A team of inspectors from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will arrive in Tehran on Sunday for a two-day visit to some of Iran's nuclear facilities, local media reported Saturday.

The IAEA inspectors are scheduled to meet some officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) before they travel to Yazd province to visit Saghand uranium mine and Ardakan Yellowcake production plant in accordance to the agreement signed by the UN nuclear watchdog and the AEOI last November, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

IAEA Deputy Director General Massimo Aparo will lead the inspection according to an agreement signed on November 11 by the head of the AEOI Ali-Akbar Salehi and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on mutual cooperation, AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

The UN nuclear watchdog is not legally entitled to visit the country's Parchin military site, stressing that any possible access to the site will be managed by Tehran, Kamalvandi said Saturday.

Iran has not accepted and is not exercising the Additional Protocol to the NPT which might oblige the country to meet further demands of the IAEA, Kamalvandi told Fars News Agency.

The West suspects that Iran might have used Parchin military site to develop nuclear arms. Iran has denied the allegations.  

After the interim nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group in November last year, the UN nuclear watchdog was tasked with monitoring Iran's end of the deal, which curbs its nuclear program in exchange for some sanction relief.

Last month, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano announced that Iran was implementing its commitments pursuant to the deal as planned.