Iran denies nuke activity at military site

TEHERAN - Iran said on Wednesday that "no nuclear activity whatsoever" has taken place at its military site of Parchin, which UN nuclear watchdog inspectors demanded last week to visit but were refused.

"No nuclear activity whatsoever has taken place on the Parchin site," the head of Iran's Nuclear Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, was quoted by the official IRNA News Agency as saying after a cabinet session. "It is up to the country's military officials to decide any request by foreign nationals to visit Parchin," he added.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week it "continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program" following an unsuccessful visit to Teheran by a five-strong inspection team.

The inspectors, who visited on Feb 20 and 21, had asked to see the Parchin military base east of Teheran but Iranian officials rejected the request.

New sanctions

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insists that the Obama administration is moving swiftly to impose tough new sanctions on Iran amid concerns in Congress that the White House won't be aggressive enough in cracking down on financial institutions that do business with Teheran's Central Bank.

"What we are intending to do is to ratchet up these sanctions as hard and fast as we can, follow what's going on inside Iran, which seems to be a lot of economic pressures that we think does have an impact on decision-making," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

The first round of penalties under the far-reaching defense bill that President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec 31 went into effect on Wednesday, and lawmakers expected an announcement from the administration on the steps it plans to take to thwart Iran's disputed nuclear program. The United States, the European Union and others have slapped a rapid series of sanctions on Teheran. Congress added to the penalties late last year.

KFC branch opens

According to British newspaper Daily Mail, American fast-food chain KFC open its first Iranian branch in 30 years, a surprise move that comes despite harsh US sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The fast-food chain has built a restaurant in the city of Karaj in the Alborz province in central Iran, as the franchise was closed in the country following the 1979 Islamic revolution due to its affiliation with the US, the country's political arch-enemy, the website said.

AFP-AP-China Daily-Reuters