No Military Site Inspections? A key adviser to Iran’s leader says U.N. access is ‘absolutely forbidden.’
http://www.wsj.com/articles/no-military-site-inspections-1438642038
President Obama says his nuclear deal with Iran depends on verification, not trust. But what if Iran has a very different interpretation of what verification entails than does Mr. Obama?
Take Ali Akar Velayati, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who appeared on Al-Jazeera on July 31 and was asked about U.N. inspections of Iran’s military sites. Here’s how he replied, according to the Memri translation service:
“Regardless of how the P5+1 countries interpret the nuclear agreement, their entry into our military sites is absolutely forbidden. The entry of any foreigner, including IAEA inspectors or any other inspector, to the sensitive military sites of the Islamic Republic is forbidden, no matter what.”
Interviewer: “That’s final?”
Mr. Velayati: “Yes, final.”
Yet Mr. Obama has been assuring Americans that inspectors will have access to any suspicious site after a maximum of 24 days. Is Mr. Velayati mistaken, and if he is, will someone else in Iran put that on the record? Congress should find out.
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