Iran's media-friendly English-language website that offers a polished argument for the Islamic Republic to achieve nuclear capabilities. Photo: Screenshot.

Iran took the internet to defend its controversial nuclear program, with a sleek website geared to English-language journalists that was launched ahead of the ongoing p5+1 talks between the Islamic Republic and world powers in Geneva.

While the surprisingly modern design and fit-and-finish of the site may have looked like the handiwork of Western PR experts, Iran watchers, including blogger Elder of Ziyon, went through the text with a fine-tooth comb on Monday to point out exaggerations and mis-truths in its Frequently Asked Questions section.

Iran allowed the IAEA to inspect its Parchin complex in 2005, and certain other areas afterward, but in the latest IAEA report on Iran, from August, about Parchin, the agency said that wasn’t the whole story: “[I]t is worth recalling that the Agency’s request for access to a specific location at the Parchin site was followed by Iran undertaking extensive activities at this location that have seriously undermined the Agency’s ability to conduct effective verification.”

Elder of Ziyon also highlighted sections of the report that list all of the communication with Tehran to request cooperation and access to relevant sites, all of which has been ignored.

The IAEA report said: “The Board of Governors also stressed that it was essential for Iran to immediately conclude and implement a structured approach for resolving outstanding issues related to possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme, including, as a first step, providing the Agency with the access it had requested to relevant sites. In light of these resolutions, between January 2012 and May 2013, Agency and Iranian officials held ten rounds of talks in Vienna and Tehran, including during a visit by the Director General to Tehran in May 2012, aimed at reaching agreement on a structured approach document. However, no concrete results were achieved.”

Iran's nuclear program's seemingly ecologically friendly new logo. Photo: Screenshot.

Meanwhile, commenters chimed in about the new Iranian website, particularly its seemingly eco-friendly logo.

“I am actually feelin’ much, much more okay with the illegal Persian Regime’s acquiring of Nuclear Power, just from looking at the logo for the Webpage! Isn’t it so charmingly non-threatening, ‘green’ and eco-friendly (the logo, that is)? *heart-felt sigh* Obviously, they have NO meanie and genocidal intentions, right, You Guys? Right?” wrote one on the Elder of Ziyon website.

Another wrote: “Finally a pro-nuclear power site that the German Green party can support.”

The new Iranian website is registered to Hossein Hamidi Zare, in Tehran, who, via email, referred requests for comment to the official site moderator who has yet to respond.