Iran nuclear-site cameras being pulled
Iran ordered international monitors to remove almost half of the surveillance cameras used to account for its stockpiles of nuclear fuel, putting at risk hopes of restoring its landmark 2015 agreement with world powers.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Thursday that his inspectors are in the process of removing 27 cameras from different nuclear facilities in Iran. The move further restricts IAEA access and will hamper inspectors’ ability to reconstruct activities.
Grossi estimated that diplomats now have no more than a month to negotiate a return to the 2015 deal that reined in Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Failing to do so “will be a fatal blow” because his inspectors won’t be able to verify many of the technical details at the heart of the accord.
“The window of opportunity is very small,” said Grossi while calling Iran’s order to remove cameras deplorable. “We are in a very tense situation.”
Iranian media published images of engineers taking steps to disconnect the IAEA’s cameras.
Talks to revive the multiparty nuclear deal, which could see Iranian oil exports return to stretched global markets, have been stalled for months, with an Iranian demand that the U.S. lift a terrorism designation on its elite military units a major point of contention.
Iran’s already-strained relationship with monitors has taken a sharp turn for the worse over the last few days, with diplomats formally censuring Tehran’s government for failing to cooperate in an IAEA investigation. The Persian Gulf’s move to restrict surveillance was in retaliation to the measure.
“Did you think that issuing a censure in the board of governors would cause us to back down from our positions?” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a speech. “We won’t back down a single step from our positions.”
Iran has been coordinating its nuclear diplomacy for months with China and the Kremlin, and Raisi spoke on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Both leaders agreed more efforts are needed to preserve the atomic accord.
But the IAEA’s Grossi suggested that could become even more difficult as Iran accelerates its previously-announced plan to install more sophisticated uranium-enrichment machines at its primary plant in Natanz.
“There are plans to increase volume of production, increase installed capacity,” said the Argentine diplomat. “This runs contrary to the idea of providing more mutual confidence.”
The IAEA will remain with about 40 installed cameras at Iranian facilities, said Grossi, who also confirmed that his inspectors continue to have access to the country’s declared sites.
The censure against Iran “expresses profound concern” and demands that the country “act on an urgent basis to fulfill its legal obligations,” read the two-page document passed with support from 30 of the 35 countries on the IAEA’s board. Russia and China opposed the measure. India, Pakistan and Libya abstained.
The 2015 accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has all but collapsed since then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US three years ago. Iran retaliated by expanding its enrichment work.
Even as President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed this month that it still sees a deal with Iran as the best-possible way to prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons, negotiations to reboot the deal have continued to founder since March. Since then, probabilities of agreement have diminished and rancor between Iran and western nations has increased.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Wednesday that Tehran had put forward a “new creative package” to the US to revive the nuclear deal, without providing details of the proposal.
He said Washington had to choose between “a path of threats and resolutions or diplomacy,” the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.