Tehran and IAEA lock horns over inspecting Parchin facility.

Tehran and IAEA lock horns over inspecting Parchin facility.(RT).The IAEA delegation holding talks in Tehran hopes to finally inspect the Parchin military base, where Iran has allegedly tested elements of its nuclear program. Tehran has refused all previous attempts by the IAEA to get inside the compound.
­The top item on the agenda for the UN nuclear watchdog’s delegation that arrived in Tehran for talks early Thursday is getting access to the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suspects that once it was used as a military testing ground for components needed to make a nuclear weapon.
"We hope that Iran will allow us to go to the site of Parchin," said Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is heading the IAEA delegation in Iran. He also shared plans to get access to information "related to possible military dimensions" of Iran's nuclear program.
IAEA inspectors have been trying to get access to Parchin over the past year.
The organization says the Islamic Republic is busying eliminating evidence of the tests, pointing to satellite photos that purportedly captured suspicious activities at the facility. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said that while any chance of finding evidence of Iran’s nuclear program at Parchin are diminishing, a visit there would still be ‘useful’.
During talks with the IAEA, Tehran has insisted on the implementation of an inspection framework as an indispensable condition for any inspection granting the watchdog access to the facility, relevant documents and Iranian scientists. Iranian international affairs expert Hassan Beheshtipour, told RT’s Maria Finoshina that “Many billions of dollars [were] pumped into the nuclear industry before the revolution, at the time of the Shah. Why they should give up now? Just because western powers say that?”
Iranian officials believe all this tension has been fabricated with the sole purpose to demonize them in the eyes of international community. Iran points out that its nuclear program has been targeted without internationally-recognized evidence that the country is moving towards the construction of a nuclear weapon.
“If you have a knife in your kitchen, some western countries come to your home and say ‘Oh, a knife is very dangerous! Maybe you want to use it to kill people.’ This idea is a joke,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast told RT.
Tehran has long insisted that Parchin is a conventional military complex and plays no role in the country's national nuclear program regardless of the IAEA's statements to the contrary. Despite the nuclear watchdog's demand for full access, Iran insists on its right to protect the secrecy of a crucial military facility just as any other state would.Hmmmm......."Time is on my side"Read the full story here.