Iran says it will allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency into its newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant.
Iran's nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Saturday on Iranian state
television the timing of the visit will be worked out with the IAEA.
Earlier, a top aide to Iran's Supreme Leader said the Iranian nuclear facility should be operational soon.
The chief of staff to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iran's Fars News
Agency that "God Willing, the new plant will be operational soon and
make the enemy blind."
On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders
accused Iran of building a secret nuclear plant and insisted the IAEA
have immediate access to ensure it is not being built to produce
nuclear weapons.
Iran denied the facility has been a secret.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran complied with IAEA rules by informing the agency early enough that the facility (near the holy Shi'ite city of Qum) was under construction.
In Israel Saturday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the newly
disclosed atomic facility was proof Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. He
said he hopes world powers will give an "unequivocal" response when
representatives from Germany, the U.S., Britain, France, China and
Russia meet with Iranian officials in Geneva on October 1.
Israel has described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to the Jewish
state and has not ruled out any options in preventing Iran from
acquiring atomic weapons.
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of working to produce a
nuclear weapon. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes,
to generate electric power.