Russia says ‘no signs’ of nuclear weapons development in Iran: Interfax.

Russia says ‘no signs’ of nuclear weapons development in Iran: Interfax.(AA).Russia sees no evidence that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. Russian officials have made similar statements in the past, but Ryabkov’s blunt remark appeared to underscore Moscow's concerns about the possibility Israel could launch attacks targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. “We, as before, see no signs that there is a military dimension to Iran's nuclear program. No signs,” Interfax quoted Ryabkov as saying.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog showed a series of satellite images on Wednesday that added to suspicions of clean-up activity at an Iranian military site it wants to inspect, Western diplomats said, but Tehran’s envoy dismissed the presentation. The pictures, displayed during a closed-door briefing for member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), indicated determined efforts in recent months to remove any incriminating evidence at the Parchin site, the diplomats said. In the latest picture, from mid-August, a building where the IAEA believes Iran carried out explosives tests - possibly a decade ago - relevant for nuclear weapons development had been shrouded in what appeared to be pink tarpaulin, they said. “It was pretty compelling,” a senior Western diplomat said about the briefing by IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts and Assistant Director General Rafael Grossi. “The last image was very clear. You could see the pink,” the envoy said. The purpose of covering the building could be to conceal further clean-up work from overhead satellites, according to a U.S. think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). The IAEA said in a confidential report last week that “extensive activities” undertaken at Parchin since February - including the demolition of some buildings and removal of earth - would significantly hamper its investigation there, if and when it was allowed access to the facility southeast of Tehran. Iran, which denies Western accusations that it seeking to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs, says Parchin is a conventional military site. Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, suggested the activities “claimed to be made in the vicinity of these so-called locations which are identified” by the IAEA had nothing to do with the U.N. agency’s investigation. “Merely having a photo from up there, satellite imagery ... this is not the way the agency should do its professional job,” he told reporters after the IAEA’s briefing. “Everybody should be careful not to damage (the) credibility of the agency,” Soltanieh added. Iran says it must first reach a broader agreement with the IAEA on how the Vienna-based U.N. agency should conduct its investigation into alleged nuclear bomb research in the Islamic state before it can possibly be allowed access to Parchin.Read the full story here.