Tehran refuses access to UN nuclear inspectors

UN inspectors have returned from talks in Tehran with no deal on access to Iran’s nuclear sites and no date for new talks, failing to produce even a small signal of hope for wider big-power diplomacy aimed at averting a war.

“Despite its many commitments to do so, Iran has not negotiated in good faith,” said a Western diplomat accredited to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, who was not at the talks. “It appears that we now have to ask ourselves if this is still the right tactic.”

The deadlock is a chilling signal to the six major powers trying to get Iran to curb a programme that they fear could give it the capacity to build a nuclear bomb – something Israel has suggested it will prevent by force if diplomacy fails.

The IAEA and Iran “could not finalise the document” setting out terms for an IAEA inquiry into the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme, chief UN inspector Herman Nackaerts said after returning from Iran.

He said no new date had been set for talks that have shown no progress in more than a year.

The US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany are due to meet Iran for separate talks in Kazakhstan on 26 February to tackle a decade-old row that has already produced four rounds of UN sanctions against Iran.