UN Nuclear Chief: Alleged Iranian Weapons Testing Site May Not Contain Any Evidence

Yukiya Amano claims Iran may have cleaned up alleged evidence of weapons development at Parchin

The UN nuclear chief again urged Iran to open up its military base to inspections, while acknowledging that there may not be any evidence there of suspected weapons development.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief, Yukiya Amano, continue to push Iran to allow inspections at the military site at Parchin, following accusations that Iran was trying to clean up evidence of weaponization of its nuclear program.

“We are concerned that our capacity to verify would have been severely undermined,” Amano said, claiming Iran’s cleanup has eliminated the evidence of weapons work, which  – from afar and with sketchy intelligence – the IAEA has very little evidence of to begin with.

“We cannot say for sure that we would be able find something,” Amano said.

With regard to Parchin, international observers should not be surprised that Iran hasn’t followed every demand and dictate of the inspectors and the Western-led negotiators.

The so-called diplomacy with Iran has been “predicated on intimidation, illegal threats of military action, unilateral ‘crippling’ sanctions, sabotage, and extrajudicial killings of Iran’s brightest minds,” writes Reza Nasri at PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau. These postures have spoiled the chance to resolve this issue promptly and respectfully.

After the failed talks in 2009 and 2010, wherein Obama ended up rejecting the very deal he demanded the Iranians accept, as Harvard professor Stephen Walt has written, the Iranian leadership “has good grounds for viewing Obama as inherently untrustworthy.” Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar has concurred, arguing that Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.”

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.