Iran Asks IAEA Permission to Remove
Seals from Nuclear Equipment

TEHRAN, July 7 (RIA Novosti, by Nikolai Terekhov) -- Iran has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for permission to remove seals on the equipment of the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, an Iranian news agency said.

"We have asked the IAEA for permission to remove seals on the equipment of the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in the presence of an Agency inspector," Iran's Fars news agency said citing Dr. Mohammad Saidi, the vice president of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.

According to Saidi, the request is not connected with Iran's moratorium on uranium enrichment works.

"The measures are connected with the need to check the status and operability of some units and components," he said.

In accordance with an agreement signed in May between Iran and the European "troika" (Britain, France and Germany), the European Union promised to present proposals on resolving the problems around Iran's nuclear programs in July. Iran in its turn promised that it would not reactivate its works on the uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have begun to remind the EU that its proposals should take into account the rights of Iran to use nuclear energy, including the uranium enrichment work, for peaceful purposes.

The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center process uraniferous ore, which, according to Iranian scientists, must later be sent for enrichment to a nuclear facility in Natanz. That plant's operation has also been suspended.