Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Iranian state media reported on Monday that Tehran will keep all of the UN nuclear watchdog’s cameras at its nuclear facilities shut down until the lapsed 2015 nuclear treaty is revived.
Iran had removed various equipment belonging to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in June this year, including 27 cameras that were initially installed after Tehran signed a nuclear treaty with major world powers in 2015, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The cameras were part of the safeguards intended to verify that Iran was upholding its end of the treaty – maintaining its nuclear programme within limits designed to ensure it would not be able to use its technology to develop nuclear weapons.
However, as former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions on Tehran, Iran had engaged in a progressive series of breaches of the treaty’s limits. For the most part, Tehran opted to make reversible breaches and continued to allow IAEA inspectors and equipment access to Iranian nuclear facilities, so that its announced breaches and overall compliance could be verified.
With US President Joe Biden coming into office, Iran resumed indirect negotiations with Washington, using other original signatories as intermediaries – the remaining UN Security Council nations of Russia, the UK, France and China, plus Germany and the EU. The negotiations were, however, complicated as hardline ultra-conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected new President of Iran last year, and as Washington sought to expand the limitations set in the original treaty.
In June, the IAEA rebuked Tehran after finding radioactive particles at three undeclared nuclear sites, previously believed to have been decommissioned, claiming that Iran failed to adequately explaine the presence of these particles to the nuclear watchdog.
In response, Iran removed 27 IAEA cameras from its sites, claiming that all of the so-called “possible military dimension” cases have been closed prior to the 2015 treaty. Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami told state media on Monday that Tehran will not address the allegedly unexplained uranium traces.
“The claimed PMD cases and locations were closed under the nuclear accord and if they (West) are sincere, they should know that closed items will not be reopened,” said Eslami. “The basis of the nuclear accord was a response to these alleged cases.”
The Iranian nuclear programme chief also stressed that Iran will not turn the cameras back on until the West resuscitates the lapsed nuclear treaty. “We will decide about the …cameras added under the nuclear deal after the Westerners return to the accord and we are sure they won’t do anything mischievous,” said Eslami.
