Iran has barred two UN nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, adding to tension less than two weeks after Tehran was hit by new UN sanctions over its disputed atomic programme.
Officials accused the two unnamed inspectors of providing false information in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and declared them persona non grata.
They made clear Iran would still allow the Vienna-based U.N. agency to monitor its nuclear facilities, saying other experts could carry out the work. "Inspections are continuing without any interruption," Iran's IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna.
But, "we have to show more vigilance about the performance of the inspectors to protect the confidentiality," he said, criticising alleged leaks by inspectors to Western media.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said Tehran had asked the IAEA to replace the two inspectors.
Mr Salehi, in comments reported by the ISNA news agency, did not name them nor give details over what elements of the report issued in May he believed were wrong.
There was no immediate comment from the IAEA, but a diplomat confirmed that Iran had notified the agency of the ban.
Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said he believed Iran's decision to ban the inspectors was in retaliation for the latest sanctions.
The United Nations Security Council on June 9th imposed a fourth round of punitive measures on the major oil producer because of nuclear activity the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies the charge.
Iran has branded the sanctions "illegal" and lawmakers have warned of a scaling-back of ties with the IAEA.
"It is part of the escalation ladder of tit-for-tat that is now beginning to emerge," Mr Karasik said in Dubai.
The IAEA's report in May showed Iran pushing ahead with higher-level uranium enrichment and failing to answer questions about possible military dimensions to its nuclear work.
Enriched uranium can provide fuel for nuclear power plants, or material for bombs if refined much further.
Washington, which was leading the push to impose new UN sanctions, at the time said the IAEA report underscored Iran's refusal to comply with international requirements.
Mr Salehi said Iran last week announced the two IAEA inspectors were banned for an "utterly untruthful" report. "We asked that they would not ever send these two inspectors to Iran and instead assign two others," he added.
Iran denied entry to a senior UN inspector in 2006.
Diplomats said Iran may be focusing on a dispute over equipment which inspectors said had gone missing from a Tehran site where the country had started researching production of uranium metal, which has both weapons and civilian applications.
Iran said last month the inspectors were wrong and denied that the equipment -- an electrochemical cell - had gone missing from the research laboratory.
Ties between Iran and the IAEA have become more strained since Yukiya Amano took over as head of the agency in December.
The Japanese diplomat has taken a tougher approach on Iran than his predecessor Mohamed El Baradei, with the IAEA saying in a February report that Iran could be trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile now, and not just in the past. Iran accused him of issuing a misleading report.
Despite the escalating dispute, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said in Vienna he still hoped a plan for Iran to part with some of its nuclear material could serve as the basis for further talks with Tehran.
Western powers have voiced deep misgivings about a plan brokered by Brazil and Turkey in May for Iran to send abroad 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium in return for reactor fuel.
"In my opinion I think sanctions make it more difficult, not easier. But I don't think they make it mpossible," he said.
Reuters