TEHRAN — Iran on Wednesday disconnected some of the
UN atomic watchdog’s cameras monitoring its nuclear sites, its atomic energy
agency said, after Western nations accused the Islamic republic of failing to
cooperate.
اضافة اعلان
The move was announced after Britain, France,
Germany, and the US submitted a resolution to the
International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) to censure Iran.
The motion, the first such step since June 2020, was
seen as a sign of growing Western impatience with Iran after talks on reviving
its 2015 nuclear deal stalled in March.
Iran said the disconnected cameras had been
operating as a “goodwill gesture”, outside its safeguard agreement with the
IAEA.
“As of today, the relevant authorities have been
instructed to cut off the On-Line Enrichment Monitor and the flow meter cameras
of the agency,” said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Iranian agency added that Iran’s agreement to
allow the cameras to run was not “appreciated” by the UN agency but considered
an “obligation”.
Its statement did not specify how many cameras had
been turned off, but said “more than 80 percent of the agency’s existing
cameras are operating according to the safeguard agreement and will continue to
operate just as before”.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Iranian
agency, had “monitored the shutdown of two IAEA cameras at a nuclear facility,”
the statement added.
“Other measures are being considered and we hope
that they will come to their senses and respond to Iran’s cooperation with
cooperation,” he told state TV.
Uranium stockpile
Iran reached a deal with
world powers in 2015 to limit its nuclear program in return for sanctions
relief — but the agreement has been on life support since then president Donald
Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from it in 2018.
Tehran, which denies seeking to build a nuclear
bomb, has backed away from some of its own commitments since 2019.
European capitals have expressed mounting concern
over how far Iran has gone in resuming nuclear activities since the
US began
imposing sanctions.
Iran has built up large stockpiles of enriched
uranium, some of it enriched to levels far higher than those needed for nuclear
power generation.
“Its nuclear program is now more advanced than at
any point in the past,” the governments said in their joint statement, adding
Iran’s accumulation of enriched uranium has no “credible civilian justification”.
In a joint statement to the IAEA, Britain, France
and Germany had said they “strongly urge Iran to stop escalating its nuclear
program and to urgently conclude (the) deal that is on the table”.
‘No hidden activities’
Iran’s nuclear organization
chief Mohammad Eslami had said earlier Wednesday that “Iran has no hidden or
undocumented nuclear activities or undisclosed sites,” state news agency IRNA
reported.
“These fake documents seek to maintain maximum
pressure” on Iran, he added, referring to the crippling economic sanctions
imposed by Washington under Trump.
“This recent move by three
European countries and
the US by presenting a draft resolution against Iran is a political one,”
Eslami said, adding Iran had maintained “maximum cooperation” with the IAEA.
The trigger for the latest Western condemnation was
a report issued by the IAEA late last month, in which it said it still has
questions about traces of enriched uranium previously found at three sites,
which Iran had not declared as having hosted nuclear activities.
The UN watchdog said those questions were “not
clarified” in its meetings with Iranian authorities.
The IAEA board of governors is expected to vote on
the motion later on Wednesday or on Thursday, diplomats said.
The talks to revive the nuclear accord started in
April 2021 with the aim of bringing the US back in, lifting sanctions and
getting Iran to return to the limits it agreed to on its nuclear activities.
But negotiations have stalled in recent months and
the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned last weekend that the possibility of
returning to the accord was “shrinking”.
IAEA head
Rafael Grossi said Monday that it would be
“a matter of just a few weeks” before Iran could get sufficient material needed
for a nuclear weapon if it continued to develop its program.
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