SEOUL — US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday that a nuclear agreement with Iran must include inspections of its military sites, a position at odds with recent comments by Iran's leader. In an interview with CNN, Carter said the nuclear deal being negotiated between the United States, other world powers and Iran must include ways to verify Tehran's compliance. “It can't be based on trust. It has to have adequate provisions for inspections,” he said, adding inspections “absolutely” would have to include military sites. A preliminary agreement was reached last week to restrict Iran's nuclear program to ensure it cannot build a bomb. A final deal faces a June 30 deadline and one of the major stumbling blocks appears to be the issue of inspections. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say for Iran on the deal, on Thursday ruled out any “extraordinary supervision measures” over nuclear activities and said military sites could not be inspected. A US “fact sheet” issued after last week's agreement was reached in Switzerland said the International Atomic Energy Agency would have regular access to all of Iran's nuclear activities. Carter, who was interviewed in South Korea, also said the United States possessed a conventional bomb that is designed to destroy deep underground targets. Iran has an underground nuclear facility at Fordow. But he said employing a military option would only set back Tehran's nuclear program by a year. He noted that is about the same amount of time it would take Tehran to build a bomb if it breaks the deal currently being negotiated. Beefing up international monitoring of Iran's nuclear work could become the biggest stumbling block to a final accord between Tehran and major powers, despite a preliminary deal reached last week. As part of that deal, Iran and the powers agreed that United Nations inspectors would have “enhanced” access to remaining nuclear activity in Iran, where they already monitor key sites. But details on exactly what kind of access the inspectors will have were left for the final stage of talks, posing a major challenge for negotiators on a complex and logistically challenging issue that is highly delicate for Iran's leaders. Securing proper inspections is crucial for the United States and other Western powers to ensure a final deal, due by June 30, is effective and to persuade a skeptical US Congress and Israel to accept the agreement. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has never welcomed intrusive inspections and has in the past kept some nuclear sites secret. Sharply differing interpretations have emerged on what was covered by last week's framework agreement — a sign of what diplomats and nuclear experts say will be tough talks ahead. Aside from the question of Iranian consent, the logistical requirements for increased monitoring of Iranian sites would be daunting. It would involve more cameras, on-site inspections, satellite surveillance and other methods and might require the IAEA to assign more people and resources to its Iran team. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said it was crucial to come up with a mechanism for “anytime, anywhere” inspections that go beyond the IAEA's own special arrangements for short-notice inspections, known as the Additional Protocol. The Additional Protocol was created in the 1990s, after the discovery of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program and revelations that North Korea and Romania had separated plutonium, as a means of smoking out covert arms-related activities. “It's extremely difficult for Iran,” said Albright, himself a former UN weapons inspector. “They don't want it. They want to keep smuggling (nuclear-related dual-use items). They're buying a lot of things, and they're not going to want to stop.” — Agencies
