Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been targeted by the western imperialist states for regime change. The People's Republic of China has rejected calls for new sanctions in the United Nations Security Council.
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TEHRAN
Iran is to open its atomic sites to some world powers, officials announced yesterday, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted the West was wrong to confront Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in Tehran that invitations to visit Iran’s nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak have been sent to ambassadors of some of the nations represented in the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Invitations had gone out to Russia and China but the United States, Britain, France and Germany were not on the list.
The invitees also include Hungary as rotating president of the European Union, Egypt and Cuba, according to sources.
The rare move to open up its facilities comes as Tehran works to garner support for its atomic drive in the run-up to talks with the six world powers in Turkey at the end of January.
“The representatives of some European Union countries, NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and some representatives of the five-plus-one (six world powers) have been invited to visit our nuclear sites,” Mehmanparast told a news conference.
Mehmanparast said the initiative was part of the Islamic republic’s attempt to demonstrate “cooperation with the IAEA” and showed “the goodwill of our country and the peaceful and cooperative nature of our (nuclear) activities”.
ISNA news agency cited Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asgar Soltanieh, as saying the visit was scheduled for January 15-16 and would be to the country’s main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the heavy water facility at Arak.
“This invitation is within the framework of Iran’s transparent nuclear policy,” Soltanieh said.
Such visits to Iran's atomic facilities are rare and the last trip which
Tehran arranged for members of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, dates back to February 2007.
The proposed new visit to the nuclear facilities in central Iran, Mehmanparast said, is to “take place before the Istanbul meeting,” for which a final date has yet to be fixed.
Iran and Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and
Germany are to meet for another round of talks on Tehran’s atomic programme. — AFP.
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