According the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) August safeguard report, Iran appears to have built an extension onto a building at the Parchin military base and suspected nuclear site, Reuters reported yesterday.

The confidential IAEA report, obtained by Reuters, said: “Since (our) previous report (in May), at a particular location at the Parchin site, the agency has continued to observe, through satellite imagery, the presence of vehicles, equipment, and probable construction materials. In addition, a small extension to an existing building” appeared to have been built.

The IAEA report comes in the wake of an assessment issued last month by the American intelligence community, which presented lawmakers with classified evidence that Iran was “sanitizing the site,” possibly to erase traces of past nuclear research that may be detected by future inspections. Iran is believed to have tested detonators for nuclear bombs at Parchin.

Parchin’s significance in Iran’s nuclear program has been subject to new scrutiny since the publication of a recent Associated Press report, which revealed Iran would be able to collect the samples that the IAEA would evaluate to detect illicit work at the site. Former IAEA deputy director-general Olli Heinonen characterized the arrangement as “departing significantly from well-established and proven safeguards practices.”

In explaining why over 60% of Americans surveyed by a recent poll want their congressional representatives to vote against the nuclear deal with Iran, Democratic pollster Pat Caddell observed that, “It’s not easy to find voters who are comfortable with the secret side deals allowing Iran to self-inspect their own nuclear activities.”

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