Questions linger over Iranmilitary site

The IAEA said Thursday that Tehran's level of uranium enrichment, nuclear research and development and other activity is in line with its declarations.

The update, in the form of a regular report reviewed by the AP and Reuters news agencies, covers work done before a landmark deal with six word powers and is the first update since the deal was signed last month.

Questions persist over Parchin

But the report expresses some reservations about the military site of Parchin where satellite imagery shows evidence of recent work by heavy machinery and unexplained vehicles.

Work undertaken since February 2012, the report says, has likely undermined the IAEA's ability to account fully whether a nuclear weapons program had ever taken place on the site. Iran insists its nuclear program has always been peaceful.

Still, the report's authors say there are concerns.

"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 appears to have constructed," the confidential report said.

Under a "roadmap" accord Iran reached with the IAEA, Iran is required to give the Vienna-based atomic watchdog enough information about its past nuclear activity to write a report on its nuclear activities both past and present.

Unnamed diplomats told Reuters that because of the recent activity at the Parchin site, it could undermine the IAEA's ability to verify intelligence suggesting Iran had previously conducted tests relevant to developing nuclear weapons.

The remote military site has been the subject of recent scrutiny by nongovernmental researchers that have raised questions over Iran's insistence that it never had a nuclear weapons program.

jar/jil (Reuters, AP)