IRAN: 2 WATCHDOG DEVICES AT NUCLEAR SITE SHUT OFF
Iran turned off two surveillance devices Wednesday used by U.N. inspectors to monitor the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment, further escalating the crisis over its atomic program as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters.
The move appeared to be a new pressure technique just before the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, meeting in Vienna, approved a resolution to criticize Iran put forward by Western nations. The censure deals with what the watchdog refers to as Iran’s failure to provide “credible information” over nuclear material found at undeclared sites across the country.
But Iran’s latest move, announced by state television, makes it even more difficult for inspectors to monitor Tehran’s nuclear program. Nonproliferation experts have warned Iran now has enough uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels to pursue an atomic bomb if it chooses to do so.
The state TV report, later repeated by other Iranian media, said authorities deactivated the “beyond-safeguards cameras of the measuring Online Enrichment Monitor and flowmeter.” That apparently refers to the IAEA’s online monitors that watch the enrichment of uranium gas through piping at enrichment facilities.
Tehran said its civilian nuclear arm, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, monitored the shutdown of the cameras. It said 80 percent of the existing cameras are IAEA “safeguard” cameras and they will continue to operate as before. Safeguards refer to the IAEA’s inspections and monitoring of a country’s nuclear program.
However, an Iranian official warned IAEA officials that Tehran was now considering taking “other measures” as well.
The IAEA declined to immediately comment.