Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared that it had successfully carried out inspections of facilities in the Iranian city of Parchin, which the organization has been trying to get into since it learned in 2012 that nuclear-weapons research was taking place there. Ephraim Asculai explains why these inspections are farcical:
According to . . . information from satellite observations, the Iranians immediately began clearing the site [in 2012], removing earth layers and probably removing all equipment, resurfacing all walls, floors and even ceilings—in short, removing all possible traces of previous activities. Although this should have been a warning sign, the IAEA did not heed suggestions not to go there because it would probably find nothing, resulting in a victory for Iran, and [instead] persisted in its request to inspect this particular building at Parchin. This is the synopsis of Act I of the farce.
Act II begins with the negotiations on the peculiar method by which the IAEA would conduct its inspection of the building, the major part of which would be carried out by the Iranians themselves, thus assuring that the results would not contradict their declarations that no improper activities took place in that building. . . .
The script for Act III is as yet uncertain since the results of the sample analyses are not yet in. The probable scenario runs like this: the IAEA will announce that “the inspection at Parchin did not produce any evidence of wrongdoing at the site.”
Read more on Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-IAEA-inspection-at-Parchin-a-farce-in-three-acts-419424