After contradictory comments from US and Iran, UN nuclear agency boss signals inspectors will visit Iran’s nuclear sites

The head of the UN’s nuclear agency signals that Iranian nuclear enrichment sites will be visited by his inspectors, a key component in the interim deal between the United States and Iran to reach an end to the war.

The comment by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Mariano Grossi is the firmest yet from the United Nations agency, which is viewed as key in determining the status of Iran’s nuclear stockpile.

Since the war last June, the IAEA has been blocked by Tehran from visiting enrichment sites where the Islamic Republic is believed to store enough highly enriched uranium to potentially build as many as 10 nuclear weapons, should it choose to rush for the bomb. Iran long has maintained that its program is peaceful, though it is the only country in the world to have uranium enriched up to 60% purity without a weapons program.

The US and Iran offered contradictory remarks yesterday about whether those sites would be inspected.

“I can understand political statements, they are part of the reality, but the fundamental thing I would like to remind you and draw your attention to is that there has been a Memorandum of Understanding, signed by both presidents,” Grossi tells journalists at a news conference at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The accord “explicitly states that the nuclear activities that are going to be carried out with the regards of the nuclear material facilities will be supervised by the IAEA — in all letters,” he says.

Grossi adds: “Obviously, to do that, we have to inspect. Whether this happens the day after tomorrow or in one week or in ten days, it’s important, but not essential. This is going to happen.”

Those inspections are key for the deal, which calls for Iran’s stockpile of uranium to be “downblended” from highly enriched levels.