Iran refuses to let UN nuclear watchdog into sites

Iran has said it has “no obligation” to grant the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency access to certain sites in the country. It also accused Israel and the US of trying to “exert pressure” on the agency.
Earlier, the Vienna-based atomic watchdog published its regular quarterly report that finds Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November in violation of its 2015 deal with world powers.
IAEA’s findings raised new questions about Iran’s possible nuclear-related activities and undeclared nuclear material at three locations. It remains unclear what exactly is thought to have taken place at the three sites, none of which the IAEA has visited before.
“Intelligence services’ fabricated information creates no obligation for Iran to consider such requests”, said Kazem Gharib Abadi, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna. He also accused the US and Israel of trying to “exert pressure on the agency, in order to distort the proactive and constructive cooperation” between the IAEA and Iran.
“Not every question and every access is up to the agency. Certainly, if any country in the world agrees to answer such questions, there will be thousands and millions of questions and also there will be thousands of requests to have access”, a spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency was quoted as saying.
With the current stockpile, Iran is within reach of the amount needed to produce a nuclear weapon.