BICOM

A six-member delegation of inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran yesterday, Iranian state television reported.

The Press TV report said the team of senior officials and experts, headed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief inspector Herman Nackaerts, arrived yesterday. Prior to the team’s departure from Vienna, the IAEA’s Nackaerts said that the delegation was looking forward to opening dialogue, which is long overdue. “We hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme,” Nackaerts said.

Iran has said it will co-operate with the IAEA team during their three-day visit but has indicated it has no intention of giving up uranium enrichment, which it considers a sovereign right.

Since 2008 Iran has declined to fully co-operate with the IAEA and denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon. The visit by inspectors could pave the way for the resumption of the talks between Iran and the E3+3 – The US, UK, China, France, Germany and Russia. The previous round of talks in January 2011 ended without a breakthrough.

In related news, yesterday US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that Iran is only one year away from producing a nuclear weapon. In an interview on CBS Panetta said that “the consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon.”