Iran offers to allow nuclear visits in effort to have sanctions lifted

IRAN has offered UN inspectors the opportunity to visit two controversial nuclear sites as part of a diplomatic charm offensive to have the international arms embargo against it lifted, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Un-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities, had been highly critical of the Iranian regime over its refusal to co-operate following claims it had undertaken illicit activities at two nuclear facilities.

Earlier this year, the agency took the unprecedented step of issuing a report publicly rebuking Iran on a number of key nuclear issues and for denying inspectors access to key installations at Marivan and Amad, which it believed had been used for developing and storing nuclear material as part of Iran’s clandestine weapons programme. Iran consistently refused access to the sites despite signing a 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other world powers.

But, the regime has now reached an agreement to allow the inspectors on to the sites, according to Western diplomatic sources. The stalemate was said to have been broken following a visit to Iran by Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’S director-general, for talks with Dr Aliakbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s body for atomic energy.

Western diplomats believed that, in return for access to the sites, the agency had given Tehran undertakings that it would no longer insist on investigating historical issues relating to Iran’s nuclear programme. “Iran is desperate to get the arms embargo lifted at the UN, and so has decided to co-operate with the IAEA to improve relations,” said a senior Western diplomat.

“Tehran believes that if it co-operates with the UN there is a greater possibility that the arms embargo will not be renewed.”

Iran’s move is likely to be greeted with scepticism in Washington, where the Trump administration is lobbying strongly for maintaining the UN Security Council’s arms embargo against Iran, which expires in October.

Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, has been pressing for Britain, France and Germany to back America’s efforts to extend the embargo, but he has met resistance from European leaders who argue the embargo is no longer valid after the US decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal in 2018. It prompted Mr Pompeo yesterday to accuse Washington’s allies of “siding with the ayatollahs”.

‘Tehran believes that if it co-operates there is a greater possibility the embargo will not be renewed’