UN AGENCY REJECTS TEHRAN'S STANCE ON MILITARY SITES

VIENNA The top U.N. official monitoring Iran’s nuclear program on Thursday rejected Tehran’s claim that its military sites were off-limits to inspection, saying his agency needs access to all “relevant locations” if suspicions arise of possible hidden atomic activities.

The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano are significant — his agency is policing the deal capping atomic activities that Iran says are peaceful but the U.S. suspects are a covert pursuit of nuclear arms.

Adding to their weight is their timing. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the deal, and has left open the option of pulling out of the treaty that Washington and five other world powers agreed to with Iran.

A U.S. pullout could effectively kill the agreement, and lead Iran to quickly ramp up programs that could be used to make weapons.

Nikki Haley, Washington’s UN ambassador, met with Amano last week to underline the American view that military sites are part of any IAEA monitoring. Iranian officials have rejected that.

Amano told AP that under monitoring conditions accepted by Iran, his agency “has access to (all) locations without making distinctions between military and civilian locations” as it works to ensure that Iran doesn’t have hidden nuclear activities.