Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh
Tehran – Iran’s representative to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, announced his resignation on Thursday without giving any reason, the Fars news agency reported.
“My mission is finished… and I return to Iran with satisfaction,” said Soltanieh, who has held the post since 2005.
On Aug.15, new President Hassan Rouhani named Ali Akbar Salehi to head Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation as part of his team.
Salehi, who holds a doctorate in nuclear science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, already headed the organisation between 2009 and 2010 before taking up the post of foreign minister under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Meanwhile, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi was quoted by the press Thursday as saying “a new ambassador (to the IAEA) has been chosen and will be announced soon.” Western countries and Israel suspect Iran’s nuclear programme is cover for a drive for a weapons capability, an ambition Tehran strongly denies.
The IAEA has been probing the programme for the past decade, and a number of international sanctions have been slapped on Tehran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Meanwhile, a US institute tracking Iran’s nuclear programme says recent satellite images it has analysed show further major alterations of a military site that the UN has long tried to access to follow up suspicions that Tehran may have used it in possible attempts to develop atomic arms.
The four photos from satellite company Digital Globe and GeoEye were seen by media ahead of publication by the Institute for Science and International Security planned for Thursday.
They images show what ISIS said was progressive asphalting of an area of the Parchin complex that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency says was a possible location for testing conventional explosive triggers for a nuclear blast.
Experts of the UN nuclear watchdog organisation met Iranian negotiators 10 times over 18 months in sessions ending earlier this year in futile attempts to gain access to the site and test Tehran’s insistence that it was a conventional military area with no link to nuclear tests. Iran has said the asphalting is part of regular maintenance and road work.
But with its probe blocked – and signs of other activity – IAEA concerns have grown that it might be an attempt to cover up any work on a weapons programmes while it keeps away inspectors.
