Iran Bans Senior Inspector Of UN Nuclear Watchdogs, Head Of IAEA: Very Serious Blow

Iran's Arak Nuclear Reactor. (Wikimedia Commons/Nanking2012)

JAKARTA - The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran's ban on some of the most experienced UN nuclear watchdog inspectors and experts in the team allowed to operate in the country was a "very serious blow" to the agency's work.

Tehran notified the IAEA in September that it was taking a move known as a design of a number of senior inspectors. In response, the IAEA said at the time, although Iran was allowed to do so, the way it did had never happened before and harmed their jobs.

"This is a very serious blow to our ability to do so," Grossi told a news conference, when asked to what extent the action had affected the IAEA's ability to carry out inspections in Iran.

The IAEA will not say how many inspectors its appointment was revoked. Diplomats say the number is slightly more than a handful of people.

Although this number is only a fraction of the more than 100 inspectors assigned in Iran, they are among the leading uranium enrichment experts in the IAEA, officials said.

One diplomat said the number of inspectors prohibited in this wave was eight people, all French and German. They added that there was only one enrichment expert in the team assigned to Iran.

Meanwhile, a senior diplomat stated that the number of other enrichment experts who have needed knowledge may be less than five.

"Not many countries have this kind of expertise. And usually countries that have this expertise are very reluctant to give up such expertise. They are also inspectors who are familiar with the facility, have been there for years to check the facility," the senior diplomat said, referring to the inspector who was no longer appointed.

The importance of this experience was illustrated in January, when an inspector saw a minor but substantial change in the series, or group, of uranium enrichment centrifuges that Iran had not notified to the IAEA. The change led to a surge in enrichment levels to 83.7 percent.

Later, inspectors who saw the change, a Russian enrichment expert, were removed from his position this year, shortly before other inspectors, the diplomat added.

It is known that uranium enrichment is at the core of Iran's nuclear program, and a process in which uranium is purified to a 60 percent level, close to about 90 percent which is the weapons level.

Iran denies trying to make nuclear weapons, but no other country is enriching them to that level without producing them.