Press Interpreter

10/04/06 -- Tehran -- According an Iranian National Television Station report, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued an order yesterday requiring related agencies to open the gates of Iran’s nuclear facilities, allowing foreign tourists to visit.

The television station quoted an Iranian Tourism and Cultural Heritage Organization administrator, Mashai, who said, “After the order is issued by the president, foreign tourists will thereafter be able to tour Iranian nuclear facilities. We are currently researching the implementation of this directive, and looking for methods of enacting it.� He said emphatically, “the president is issuing this order because Iran’s nuclear facility plans are completely based on the aim of peace.�

Mashai did not explain the identities and other particulars of the foreign tourists however, and also did not publicly announce when the order will start to take effect.

According to the current situation with Iranian nuclear facilities, those that can become locations for foreign tourists to tour include the Bushehr nuclear power station, which is under construction, uranium enrichment facilities located in the city of Isfahan in central Iran, and the uranium enrichment factory located at the nuclear research station in Natanz. Previous to the issuing of this order, only International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear inspectors and a few reporters were able to fully access these nuclear facilities.

Iran has consistently remained committed to its right under the “Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty� framework to engage in uranium enrichment activities and peacefully develop nuclear power, and stressed that its nuclear plans are completely based on the aim of peace. The United states and other western countries, however, persist in the belief that Iran is developing a nuclear program in order to develop nuclear weapons.

[Full Article]

By Xu Yanyan and Liang Youchang, via Xinhua Net

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2006-10/04/content_5169095.htm