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ISIS: Iran performing more 'sanitization' in Parchin
DC-based Institute for Science and International Security says satellite images shows Tehran is pursuing clean up activities at suspected nuclear base
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) published new satellite imagery on Wednesday in which it appears that further clean up activity is evident in an Iranian military site which the International Atomic Energy Agency has been barred from.
The base – Parchin – is at the centre of Western allegations that Iran has conducted experiments that could help it develop nuclear weapons.
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ISIS published the latest satellite picture a day after Iran and six world powers failed to make any progress on their decade-old nuclear dispute during two days of talks in Moscow.
Iran has so far refused to grant the IAEA access to the Parchin facility as part of the UN agency's long-stalled investigation into suspected nuclear bomb research in the Islamic Republic.
ISIS imagery
Western diplomats say they believe Iran may be trying to clean the sprawling site of any incriminating evidence before possibly allowing IAEA inspectors to go there.
Iran has dismissed the allegations, but IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano earlier this month said satellite images indicated that buildings were being demolished and soil removed at Parchin, about 20 miles southeast of Tehran.
"I think there is real concern for what the Iranians are doing at Parchin," one Western envoy said on Wednesday.
The think-tank posted a picture from June 7 on its website which "shows what appears to be further sanitization activity" at the site in the Parchin complex where Iran is suspected to have conducted high explosive tests.
"The image shows heavy machinery tracks and earth displacement throughout the site," ISIS, which monitors Iran's nuclear program closely, said.
"There is evidence of earth moving machinery and excavation activity near the second demolished building north of the building suspected to contain the high explosive testing chamber," ISIS said.
Iran has dismissed allegations aired about Parchin as "childish" and "ridiculous" and earlier this month accused the IAEA of behaving like a Western-manipulated spy agency.
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