VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Wednesday of behaving like a Western-manipulated intelligence agency but still expressed hope of reaching a deal to resume a stalled probe into Tehran's disputed nuclear activities.
Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh spoke two days before he is due to meet senior officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA). The U.N. agency aims to seal a framework agreement that would unblock its investigation into suspected atomic bomb research in the Islamic state.
By sharply criticising the IAEA, Soltanieh signalled defiance ahead of Friday's discussions in Vienna and appeared to show little appetite for making concessions.
The U.N. watchdog has made clear its immediate priority in its investigation is to visit a military site, Parchin, where it suspects Iran has carried out explosives tests that could be used to develop nuclear arms.
Iran, which says Parchin is a conventional military site, has so far denied access.
Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the IAEA, said Iran's military activities were none of the agency's business and that Western countries were manipulating its decisions.
"The agency has diverted from its principal statutory mandate. Unfortunately the agency, which is supposed to be an international technical organisation, is somehow playing the role of an intelligence agency," he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board.
But Soltanieh also said Iran had decided to work with the agency to prove Western allegations of a nuclear weapons agenda were "forged and fabricated".
A senior Western envoy in the Austrian capital described Soltanieh's criticism as an outrageous attack on the IAEA's credibility and integrity.
Western diplomats say they doubt that Iran, which they accuse of seeking to buy time for its nuclear programme, will implement any accord that it signs with the Vienna-based IAEA.
IMPASSE
They say Iran may offer increased cooperation with the IAEA as a bargaining chip in its talks with world powers on ending the decade-old standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The impasse has led to the imposition of increasingly tough economic sanctions on Iran, a major oil producer, and fears of a new Middle East war.
Iran and the six powers - the United States, France, Russia, China, Germany and Britain - will meet for a third time this year, in Moscow on June 18-19, after making scant progress at their previous meeting in Baghdad last month.
Iran denies Western allegations that its nuclear programme is a covert bid to develop the capability to make atomic arms, and Soltanieh said Tehran would never suspend uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.
Israel's envoy to the IAEA, Ehud Azoulay, on Wednesday accused Iran of proceeding on an "accelerated path towards acquiring nuclear weapon capability", according to a copy of his statement to the closed-door board session.
Israel - widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal - sees Tehran's nuclear activities as a threat to its existence.
Iranian officials have made clear that only after reaching a framework deal will they consider allowing the IAEA to visit Parchin, where U.N. inspectors suspect Iran built a steel containment vessel in which to conduct explosives tests.
Citing new satellite images showing razed buildings there, Western officials believe Iran is trying to clear any incriminating evidence before allowing U.N. inspectors to go there, a charge Iran has dismissed.
The IAEA says Iran has stalled its probe for more than four years, but agency chief Yukiya Amano this week said the two sides had narrowed their differences.
Asked whether he believed a deal could be signed on Friday, Soltanieh said: "I'm always an optimist and I hope that the agency also takes into serious consideration our concerns."
