Iran appears to have built an extension to part of its Parchin military site since May, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a report obtained by the Reuters news agency on Thursday.A resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Parchin file, which includes a demand for fresh IAEA access to the site, is a symbolically important issue that could help make or break Tehran's July 14 nuclear deal with six world powers.
The confidential IAEA report obtained by the news agency says, "Since (our) previous report (in May), at a particular location at the Parchin site, the agency has continued to observe, through satellite imagery, the presence of vehicles, equipment, and probable construction materials. In addition, a small extension to an existing building" appeared to have been built.
The changes were first observed last month, a senior diplomat familiar with the Iran file said.
The IAEA says any activities Iran has undertaken at Parchin since UN inspectors last visited in 2005 could jeopardize its ability to verify Western intelligence suggesting Tehran carried out tests there relevant to nuclear bomb detonations more than a decade ago.
Iran has dismissed the intelligence as "fabricated".
Under a "road map" Iran reached with the IAEA parallel to its agreement with six global powers, it is required to give the Vienna-based watchdog enough information about its past nuclear activity to allow it to write a report on the long vexed issue by year-end.
American experts recently said that satellite images showed "renewed activity at a site" inside Parchin, which the West has suspected of being used for nuclear activities.
The experts said the images, taken after the nuclear deal was announced, raised "obvious concerns that Iran was conducting further sanitization efforts to defeat" verification by the IAEA.(READ MORE)
