Iran Reiterates: IAEA Not Involved in Parchin Sampling

"Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Reza Najafi, has emphasized that recent sampling at the Parchin military site was not done under IAEA supervision.

In his comments to the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency, Najafi categorically rejected a news report by the Reuters news agency quoting IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano as saying that the sampling had been done under the supervision of the UN agency's inspectors.

'We have not allowed any IAEA inspector into Parchin site to take samples or supervise our sampling; we have taken the samples by ourselves,' he stressed.

Najafi reiterated that Iranian experts have taken all the samples themselves, and added, 'These are our red lines and no inspector is allowed to enter a military site for inspection.'

The Iranian envoy underlined that the visit by Amano and his deputy to Parchin was a general visit which was done as a formality, and said, 'They did not have any equipment even a mobile phone and their visit (to Parchin) did not last for more than a few minutes.'..."