Meanwhile US wants inspections ‘within weeks’

The Obama administration will this week tell Iran to open its nuclear enrichment site to international inspectors “within weeks,” say senior administration officials. Inspectors must have full access to key personnel who put together the clandestine plant and to the documents surrounding its construction. Secretary for Defence Robert Gates called the secret facility “part of a pattern of deception and lies” just days ahead of the first direct talks between the US and Iran in 30 years in Geneva on Thursday. Iranian officials have long maintained their nuclear programme is to produce energy, not weapons, and said the facility is for peaceful purposes, though there was no explanation why it’s located inside a heavily guarded base of the Revolutionary Guards.