WASHINGTON — International inspectors won’t be allowed access to military bases in any deal with world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a top Iranian commander said.
“They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams,” said Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the state-run Press TV news channel.
“Visiting a military base by a foreign inspector would mean the occupation of our land because all our defense secrets are there,” Salami said. “Even talking about the subject means national humiliation.”
Salami’s comments demonstrated the the difficulty that awaits negotiators from the United States. and five other world powers as they try to reach a final agreement with Iran by June 30 that would trade curbs on that country’s nuclear program for lifting economic sanctions. Talks will resume this week in Vienna.
“Don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that a Congress is going to approve this framework the way it’s set up,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Anytime-anywhere inspections of military-nonmilitary facilities will be a bipartisan must,” said Graham, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This idea that we can’t go where we need to go is going to fail.”
A fact sheet issued by the State Department says that a framework for a deal, negotiated in Switzerland, calls for the right to investigate “suspicious sites” or allegations of covert activities “anywhere in the country.”
A joint statement issued by Iran and the European Union on April 2 refers only to an agreement to abide by an “additional protocol” of the International Atomic Energy Agency designed to give inspectors greater access to check for any clandestine nuclear work.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said any deal with Iran will include unfettered international inspections.
The two sides also disagree about the pace of sanctions relief. While Kerry has said sanctions would be lifted “in phases” as inspectors verify Iran’s compliance with nuclear obligations, Iran has said sanctions must be lifted as soon as a deal is reached.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
