“A first IAEA team of judicial experts will go in,” Fleming

TEHRAN, July 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday, July 28, it will next month send two new teams of specialists to Iran, as the Islamic Republic's representative on the U.N. nuclear watchdog urged his government to sign up to closer inspections of its nuclear sites.

A first IAEA team of judicial experts will go in the first week of August on a 48-hour mission to explain how the an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will work if Tehran signs, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

“The second team will carry out routine inspections ahead of a report on Iran's nuclear facilities by the IAEA due to be released on September 8,” Fleming was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying. 

The announcement came a day after Iran's representative at the IAEA took the unusual step of urging his government to agree to surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities by the IAEA.

Ali Akbar Salehi said signing the additional protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would help ease the pressure Tehran faced from the international community.

"The protocol has not been drawn up only for Iran or Third World countries. This is an international protocol and all the countries of the IAEA will accede to it sooner or later," Salehi said in an interview with Sunday's state-run Iran newspaper.

We can use it to close the book on the politicized issue of our nuclear activities," he said.

He underlined that Tehran should take a "positive view" of the protocol, which allows IAEA experts to conduct more rigorous visits to nuclear sites at short notice.

The international community is pressing Tehran to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to allow the no-notice inspections, but so far Iran has not obliged.

Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, slamming all accusations of nuclear ambitions as baseless.

'Sooner Or Later'

Salehi said he hoped Tehran would take measures to satisfy international concerns before September.

The IAEA board of directors meets then to discuss Iran's progress since June, when an initial report came out.  

But any move on the protocol would have to be passed in parliament, then ratified by the supervisory body, the Guardian Council, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

In addition, some members of parliament have suggested that instead of signing up to tighter inspections, Iran should pull out of the treaty altogether, it added.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi Monday assured that Iran has no intention of quitting the NBP altogether.

"Our policy remains the same as we declared before," Asefi said.

A prominent conservative, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, said Sunday that Iran could leave the NPT all together if the pressures persist.

"There are differences of opinion in our country - this is normal in a democracy", Asefi responded Monday.

During a visit to South Africa last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said the country's leadership would decide whether to agree to sign after hearing from the IAEA experts.

Last week foreign ministers from the EU joined the United States, Russia and Australia in voicing concerns over Iran's nuclear program and urged Tehran to fully cooperate with the IAEA.

The E.U., which is negotiating a key trade pact with Iran, said it would review its cooperation with Tehran in September, when the IAEA delivers its latest repor

Iran, a country rich in oil, is suspected by its arch foe the United States of covertly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear program, allegations strongly denied by Tehran.

Last week, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami accused the United States of seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime and of using the nuclear weapons allegations as a pretext.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had said that Washington would like to see a different kind of regime in Iran.