U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Friday that a nuclear agreement with Iran must include inspections of its military sites, a position at odds with recent comments by Ali Khamenei, the regime’s Supreme Leader.
In an interview with CNN, Carter said the nuclear deal being negotiated between the world powers and the Iranian regime must include ways to verify Tehran’s compliance.
“It can’t be based on trust. It has to have adequate provisions for inspections,” he said, adding inspections “absolutely” would have to include military sites.
Ali Khamenei, who has the final say for Iran on the deal, on Thursday ruled out any “extraordinary supervision measures” over nuclear activities and said military sites could not be inspected.
A U.S. “fact sheet” issued after last week’s preliminary agreement on a ‘framework’ reached in Switzerland said the International Atomic Energy Agency would have regular access to all of Iran’s nuclear activities.
The Pentagon chief, who was interviewed in South Korea, also said the United States possessed a conventional bomb that is designed to destroy deep underground targets, Reuters reported.
