Acting on a request from Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said today it will send a team to Tehran to work jointly on a plan meant to clear up suspicions about the Islamic republic's nuclear activities.
The invitation, conveyed yesterday by a senior Iranian envoy and made public Monday by the agency, was portrayed by some diplomats as a positive step in IAEA attempts to learn more about past activities that could point toward a weapons program.
But the US said it was sceptical.
"I don't think Iran's track record is particularly noteworthy or particularly likely to give me or anyone else confidence that anything will come of these discussions," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.
The invitation was linked to a recent Iranian offer to stop stonewalling the agency in its probe of more than two decades of Iranian nuclear activities - clandestine until 2002 when they were revealed by a dissident group.
If followed through, it could generate international good will that might blunt the threat of new UN sanctions and increase pressure on the US and its closest allies to compromise on their insistence for a full enrichment freeze.
Besides demanding such a freeze - and answers to the IAEA's questions - the Security Council wants Iran to stop building a plutonium-producing reactor.
The country's refusal to provide answers originally prompted the council to get involved. Since December, it has imposed two sets of sanctions and has begun informal consultations on new penalties.
AP