Iran: U.N. can visit secret military complex
Updated at 11:33 a.m. ET
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(CBS/AP) TEHRAN, Iran - Iran says it will allow U.N. inspectors access to a secret military complex where the U.N. nuclear agency suspects secret atomic work has been carried out.
In a statement issued by the country's permanent envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran says it will allow U.N. officials to visit the Parchin complex, southeast of Tehran in a gesture of good will.
The statement says the visit requires an agreement on guidelines for the inspection. It was carried by the official ISNA news agency Tuesday. There was no indication of how much freedom IAEA officials will have on their tour of Parchin.
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Also Tuesday, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, who are demanding that Iran freeze all uranium enrichment, said they have accepted an offer to resume talks with Tehran on the nuclear issue.
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For years, Iran has executed a dual strategy of taking steps to advance its nuclear program while proposing more talks, which some critics have dismissed as a time-buying tactic.
Tuesday's announcements come less than two weeks after IAEA experts returned from Tehran from their second failed attempt within a month to persuade Iran to end nearly four years of stonewalling on what the agency says is growing intelligence-based information that Iran has worked -- and may still be working -- on components of a nuclear weapons program.
UN nuke watchdog again denied access in Iran
In a report issued last year, the IAEA cited the construction of a large containment chamber at Parchin as evidence that the Islamic Republic was planning to test high-explosives - evidence the nuclear watchdog said was a "strong" indicator of weapons development.
Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at the production of energy and radioactive isotopes for medical use, not creating an atomic weapon.
Israel, the United States, and many other countries believe Iran is aggressively trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
In a White House meeting Monday, President Obama urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give diplomacy and sanctions more time to persuade Iran to halt its enrichment program, amid fears that Israel may launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran with little or no warning.
In a joint appearance with Netanyahu before the two men met at the White House, Mr. Obama called Israel one of America's "greatest allies" and deemed the bond between the two nations "unbreakable."
But underlying the positive rhetoric were U.S. fears that Israel is moving too quickly toward military action against Iran. Administration sources say Netanyahu told Mr. Obama in private that Israel hasn't made a decision yet on whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, but the prime minister voiced impatience with diplomatic efforts in a speech to American Jewish supporters.
"(Israel has) waited for diplomacy to work, we've waited for sanctions to work. We cannot afford to wait much longer. ... I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation," Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Monday night.
Prior to the Iranian announcement Tuesday, the head of the IAEA said Iran recently increased its uranium enrichment, and he criticized the country for refusing to let the agency's inspectors investigate suspicions about its weapons program.
"The agency continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said on Monday.
Recent moves to boost uranium enrichment at Fordo, an underground Iranian facility that may be able to withstand aerial attack, are of particular concern.
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why cbsnews use just one picture for most news and articles about Iran.
every country have secret military program.
what is problem about iran.
Iran did not attack to any country for more than 100 years.
Israel have nukes.why?
did you never seen this picture:
http://www.mashreghnews.ir/files/fa/news/1390/12/14/144211_391.jpg
That's like someone saying yesterday that the only reason their facilities would be hardened is if they had something to hide in them. I even find that absurd, and I'm a woman. Nuclear sites are military targets and everyone hardens them. The nuclear plant they talk about on the History or Discovery channel that's down the river from NYC has walls so thick that you could fly a 747 into them at full speed and they wouldn't even budge. There are armed guards running all over the place too. Why would we need all that if it's only being used to power NY, right?
And we have less to fear in terms of our nuke plants being air bombed than anyone in the Middle East does. So what's our excuse?
And what's Israel's? Why did they spend 40 years lying about their nuke development and refusing to allow inspections or to sign the non-proliferation treaty? Iran signed it.
Perhaps NATO needs to be poking around its own mirror looking for issues before climbing into someone else's window checking for something?
Haven't Iranians proved they lie and deceive enough? I can just look at the cross eyed Idiot Imajihad and tell he's a criminal. Remember how the US captives from the Islamic revolution swore he was involved?
That all got swept under the table. Hasn't he swore they won't waver one inch?? I would have moved in the moment he said that if we weren't bluffing.
Why had the Israelis already tried to sell South Africa their own illegally obtained and oft denied nuclear weapons in 1975, only to turn around and complain about Iran starting a nuke race?
How much of Iran's chemical weaponry has turned up on black markets or someplace else due to negligence, given that the US has been attacked with its own lost Anthrax and both Russian and N. Korean weapons have been vanishing for years with no repercussions at all from NATO? Is it because NATO can't even joke about invading either country? Sure it is.
And please stop with the eternal Israeli victim thing. Yes they've been getting attacked but when you squat in someone else's house, then increase your numbers and crowd them, then fight with them, then attempt to go to court and get the deed to their house transferred to your name and then throw them off their own property you tend to end up having some more fighting to do - sorry.