Iran bars two U.N. inspectors in nuclear row

(Reuters) – Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday, in a further escalation of an international dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The United Nations Security Council on June 9 imposed a fourth round of sanctions on the major oil producer because of nuclear activity the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies the charge.

The head of Iran‘s Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the two inspectors were declared persona non-grata for filing an “untruthful” report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the country’s nuclear work.

Salehi, in comments carried by the ISNA news agency, did not name them nor give details over what elements of the report he did not believe were accurate, adding Tehran had asked the U.N. agency to replace the two inspectors.

There was no immediate comment from the IAEA, but a diplomat confirmed that Iran had notified the agency of the ban.

Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said Iran‘s move was “the first of what will be many retaliations” for the sanctions.

“It is part of the escalation ladder of tit-for-tat that is now beginning to emerge,” he said in Dubai.

In its latest report on Iran in late May, the IAEA said the country was preparing extra equipment to enrich uranium to higher levels and also continued to stockpile nuclear material.

Enriched uranium can provide fuel for nuclear power plants, or material for bombs if refined much further.

The nine-page report showed Iran pushing ahead with higher-level enrichment and failing to answer the agency’s questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear work and address concerns about possible undisclosed activities.

Washington, which was leading the push to impose new U.N. sanctions, at the time said the IAEA report underscored Iran‘s refusal to comply with the international requirements.

STRAINED TIES

Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, has reacted angrily to the latest sanctions, branding them “illegal.” Lawmakers have warned of a reduction in ties with the IAEA.

Citing Salehi, ISNA said: “Iran last week announced that these two (inspectors) would not have the right to enter Iran due to submitting wrong … information as well as disclosing classified information before the proper official time.”

“Their report was utterly untruthful and … we asked that they would not ever send these two inspectors to Iran and instead assign two others,” Salehi said.

Diplomats said Iran may be focusing on a dispute over some nuclear equipment which inspectors said had gone missing from a site in Tehran.

Iran told the agency it had started researching the production of uranium metal, raising Western concerns because this material has both weapons and civilian applications, according to the IAEA report.

Iran said last month the inspectors were wrong and denied that the equipment — an electrochemical cell — had gone missing from the research laboratory.

Ties between Iran and the IAEA have become more strained since Yukiya Amano took over as head of the agency in December.

The Japanese diplomat has taken a tougher approach on Iran‘s nuclear program than predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei, with the IAEA saying in a February report that Iran could be trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile now, and not just in the past.

Iran accused him of issuing a misleading and unbalanced report.

(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari and Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Fredrik Dahl in Dubai and Sylvia Westall in Vienna; writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Janet Lawre