Iran has invited envoys from China, the European Union and elsewhere to visit nuclear sites in a bid to show openness about its disputed atomic work ahead of new talks with major powers later this month.
Analysts saw Iran's invitation, to several ambassadors accredited to the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna, as a "public relations" exercise which may do little to help resolve a long-running international row over Tehran's nuclear plans.
"However, it is a move away from all the confrontational rhetoric," Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at Scotland's St Andrews university, said.
But a senior Western diplomat dismissed it as Iran's latest "stunt" seeking to distract attention from its obligations under repeated UN Security Council resolutions calling on Tehran to suspend activity the West fears has military aims.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said the ambassadors were invited to travel to the country before Tehran and six world powers involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the nuclear dispute are due to meet in Istanbul at the end of January.
They included representatives from some of the six powers – China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the United States, ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.
"They will possibly visit Iran and our nuclear facilities on January 15 and 16," he said.
He did not give details, but a diplomat in Vienna said Russia, China, Egypt, Algeria, Cuba and current EU president Hungary were believed to be among those invited. Britain said it was not invited.
Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based UN nuclear body, said the plan was for the group to travel to the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water reactor.
The two sites are at the heart of Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, which suspects the Islamic Republic is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this.
"Ambassadors … are invited to visit our nuclear sites, particularly in Natanz and Arak," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said i. "This is in the line of our transparent nuclear policy," he said, adding that meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials would also be organized, Reuters reported.
