IAEA says Iran talks failed.

The United Nation’s atomic watchdog said it failed to win access to Iran’s suspected nuclear-related military base, as an Iranian general warned his country may launch a pre-emptive strike to protect its facilities, Bloomberg Businessweekly reported.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran refused permission to visit the facility at Parchin during two days of talks that ended yesterday. The meetings were aimed at defusing tensions over a possible weapons component to the Islamic republic’s atomic program, which the US and Israel have signaled may require an attack to prevent.

“It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement posted on the organization’s Facebook page. “We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached.”

The risk of a military conflict in a region holding half the world’s oil reserves was underscored yesterday when an Iranian general said his nation would consider pre-emptive action if it is threatened.

“We will no more wait to see enemy action against us,” the state-run Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Hejazi, deputy head of the general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, as saying. His warning came after Iran sent the European Union a letter last week asking for negotiations at the “earliest opportunity” on the nuclear issue.