UN inspectors were expected in Iran today, a day after the UN nuclear watchdog said Tehran had failed to honor its nuclear safeguards agreement, which Washington called "deeply troubling" and a cause for world alarm.
Tehran rejected the charges by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), insisting that it could provide "answers" to all the agency's concerns.
Iran has fully abided by its nuclear obligations, a spokesman for Iran's atomic energy organisation, Khalil Musavi, said in remarks carried today by state television.
"This report like most other reports by IAEA shows the transparent interactions between Iran's atomic energy organization and the IAEA, we will also study and evaluate this report and express our official stance in a declaration at the IAEA meeting on June 16th in Vienna," Musavi added.
"We will continue our cooperation with the agency and at the moment an inspection group from the agency are active in Iran to continue their work."
According to a partial copy of an IAEA report widely leaked to the media, Iran was found to have violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but was taking steps to correct the problem.
The report, filed to member states ahead of a June 16 meeting of the agency in Vienna, comes amid mounting pressure from Washington, which suspects Tehran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and the director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh will appear in parliament Sunday to discuss and Iran's nuclear policies, the official IRNA news agency reported.
As news broke of the controversy yesterday, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said: "We have done nothing which would violate our commitments regarding the NPT."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that "we think the report and Iran's programs themselves are deeply troubling and need to be studied carefully by all members. Then we need to look at it seriously together."
Details were unavailable in Tehran on the inspectors' itinerary.
An IAEA source in Vienna said the inspectors had left the Austrian capital on a flight overnight and should now be in Iran.
AFP