IAEA sees "demolishing" of buildings at Iran site

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VIENNA (Reuters) - Satellite images indicate that buildings are being demolished and soil removed at Parchin, an Iranian military site the U.N. nuclear watchdog wants to visit, its chief said on Monday.

Yukiya Amano's comments will reinforce Western diplomats' suspicions that Iran is trying to remove any incriminating evidence from the Parchin facility before possibly granting the International Atomic Energy Agency access.

Amano, the IAEA director general, said he hoped his agency and Iran would soon finalize an agreement for IAEA inspectors to resume a long-stalled investigation into suspected atom bomb research in the Islamic Republic.

The two sides will hold a new round of talks on June 8 in Vienna, Amano said on the opening day of a week-long meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board.

The agency's immediate priority in its investigation is to visit Parchin, where it believes Iran may have carried out high explosives tests that could be used in developing nuclear weapons.

Parchin, which Iran says is a conventional military complex, is at the centre of Western allegations that Iran has conducted experiments - possibly a decade ago - that could help it develop nuclear bombs. Iran denies any such ambition.

Last week, a U.S. think-tank published satellite images of Parchin which it said underscored concern that Iran is trying to destroy evidence of possible nuclear weapons-related research.

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) posted the pictures on its website hours after the IAEA showed diplomats at a closed-door briefing similar images that Western envoys said indicated a clean-up at Parchin.

"The satellite imagery indicates that these activities include the use of water, demolishing of buildings, removing fences and moving soil," Amano told a news conference.

"These are some of the activities that we have observed through satellite imagery," he said, expressing concern that they could hamper the agency's efforts to find out what has been going on at the site, if and when it gains access.

Western diplomats say the buildings that appear to have been razed recently are small side buildings near the main structure that is of interest to the IAEA.

IRAN SEES "NEW CHAPTER"

Amano made a rare visit to Tehran two weeks ago and said when he returned to the Austrian capital that he expected a framework cooperation deal with Iran to be signed soon.

Iranian officials have made clear that only after reaching a deal will they allow U.N. inspectors to visit Parchin, where the IAEA suspects Iran built a steel containment vessel in which to carry out explosives tests.

Amano said both sides had shown flexibility in previous meetings and "we have narrowed down the differences."

The IAEA says Tehran has stonewalled its investigation for almost four years, and Western diplomats have voiced doubt that Iran will implement any agreement that is reached.

They say Iran may be offering increased cooperation with the IAEA as a bargaining chip in its talks with world powers on ending the decade-old standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, an impasse that has led to the imposition of increasingly tough economic sanctions on Iran.

"I think they are just stalling for time," one Western diplomat said about Iran.

Iran and the six powers - the United States, France, Russia, China, Germany and Britain - will meet for a third time this year in Moscow on June 18-19 after making scant progress on the dispute at their last meeting in Baghdad last month.

"I invite Iran to sign and implement the Structured Approach document as soon as possible and to provide early access to the Parchin site," Amano earlier told the IAEA board, referring to the framework agreement for the agency's investigation.

Amano said Iran was not providing the cooperation needed to enable the IAEA to give "credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities" in the country.

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said a "new chapter" had begun between the agency and the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Soltanieh also warned against technical issues being politicized.

"Certain elements are trying to distort the constructive atmosphere of cooperation between Iran and the agency through political controversy," he said, in a clear reference to Iran's Western foes.

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Tim Pearce)

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