Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 24 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
IAEA's intention to visit the Parchin military complex is just an excuse to obtain Iran's secret military information, secretary-general of Iranian Islamic Coalition party, nuclear expert Hassan Ghafourifard told Trend in an interview.
The Secretary general said Iran does not move towards creating an atomic bomb, something that Western states believe the Islamic Republic intends to do.
"The top leaders have said that we do not need the atomic bomb, we're not moving into that direction. This should be reassuring to the world. We're not afraid of anyone," Ghafourifard said.
"Iran has been co-operating with IAEA all the way, and continues to do so. In times of president Mohammad Khatami's ruling, we started following the NPT protocol, even before the Majlis (parliament) agreed on it," he said.
On Nov. 16, IAEA reported that Iran has been conducting "extensive activities" at the Parchin military compound - an allusion to suspected Iranian attempts to remove evidence - would seriously undermine an agency investigation into indications that research relevant to developing a nuclear explosive were conducted there.
Being a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from from the University of Kansas, Ghafourifard outlined several points regarding Iran's nuclear program, and Western states' claims against it.
"First, we are very concerned by the fact that the information available to IAEA is also available for Israel," Ghafourifard said, adding that leaked information caused the deaths of several Iranian nuclear scientists in the past.
"Second, IAEA does not have the right to request, at any point, to visit country's political and military areas," he said.
The third point was more technical, as Ghafourifard explained why Western claims regarding Iran's Parchin military complex, are baseless.
"Anyone familiar with nuclear physics would know that it is impossible to wash away or cover up the remains of nuclear tests," the secretary general said. "For instance, when the Chernobyl catastrophe broke out, the radiation from that place reached Argentina. That is with Russia being in Northern hemisphere and Argentina in the Southern one."
Ghafourifard also mentioned the fact that the Western experts can easily check whether the nuclear tests took place or not, without actually visiting the spot.
"Western countries have special devices that measure the radiation levels, which can detect the radiation level even after all the washing and covering up," he said. "They make aerial photos, and have facilities where tests on insects, snakes or scorpions can determine whether a body has been exposed to radiation."
The IAEA delivered its latest quarterly Iran report 10 days after U.S. President Barack Obama's November 7 re-election raised hopes of a revival of nuclear diplomacy with Iran following speculation that Israel might bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.
Tehran denies U.S. and Israeli allegations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability, saying its programme is entirely for peaceful energy. But U.N. inspectors suspect past, and possibly ongoing, military-related nuclear activity.
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