DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - THE WEST/IRAN: ANOTHER RUSE, BY IRAN, TO BUY TIME IN ORDER TO WORK ON THEIR NUKES

Lieberman: Iran approval for UN inspection of reactors is a ruse
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman warned Saturday that Iran's announcement it would allow UN officials to inspect its nuclear reactors is a diversionary tactic.

The rightwing Yisrael Beiteinu party head said the Islamic Republic's permission for International Atomic Energy Agency members to return to the reactors after they had been banished is an attempt by Tehran to "buy time."

"The world must not fall into this trap and should continue to push for further sanctions against Iran," Lieberman said,

On Friday, the IAEA said its representatives will be allowed to return to inspect Iran's nuclear reactors.

In a further sign of compromise on the part of the Islamic republic, the IAEA said that Tehran also had agreed to answer questions on past experiments that the international community fears could be linked to a weapons program.

The IAEA said Iran promised the concessions earlier this week in a meeting between its officials and a senior delegation from the Vienna-based agency.

Years of Iranian stonewalling have left the IAEA unable to ascertain whether Tehran is telling the truth in asserting that it has no nuclear weapons ambitions and that its atomic activities are meant strictly to generate power.

Its refusal to cooperate with the agency was the trigger that prompted U.N. Security Council involvement last year and led to two sets of sanctions.

Any decision by the Islamic republic to cooperate with the agency would be a major concession on its part. As such, it could weaken a push by the United States and its Western allies on the council to impose new U.N. sanctions - even if Tehran continues to defy the council's main demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment program.

In talks between Iranian officials and IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen, agreement was reached on ... a visit of agency inspectors to the heavy water research reactor at Arak by the end of July, said am IEAE statement.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Lieberman: Iran approval for UN inspection of reactors is a ruse