Iran to shutdown IAEA surveillance system until the nuclear deal is restored

Middle East, News July 26, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Iran has announced to shut down the surveillance system of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog until the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is restored.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami announced on July 25 that Iran plans to turn off the surveillance system of its nuclear plants that have been installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Eslami stated that “those cameras are related to the nuclear deal. If Westerners return to this pact and we are certain they will not commit any mischief, we will make a decision on these cameras.”

He also denied all kinds of Possible Military Dimension (PDM) allegations against Iran’s nuclear program and stated that his country is not obliged to address the unexplained uranium traces as demanded by the IAEA.

IAEA installed cameras and other advance monitoring systems in Iran’s nuclear plants as a part of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to clear up the allegations that Iran is enriching uranium to make it capable of being used in the nuclear weapons. United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the deal in 2018 has led Iran to gradually retreat from the compliance agreement.

Iran decided to shut down 27 cameras as well as other monitoring equipment installed by the IAEA after the agency criticized the country for its uranium enrichment in June this year.

^{An inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency sets up surveillance equipment, at the Uranium Conversion Facility of Iran, just outside the city of Isfahan, Iran, Aug. 8, 2005 (Image Credit: AP/Mehdi Ghasemi/ISNA)}

The IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi also recently commented on Iran’s nuclear enrichment by stating that “this does not imply that Iran is making a nuclear weapon, but no country that does not have warlike projects enriches at that level, at 60 percent.”

In response to Grossi’s statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani accused him of being “unprofessional, unfair and nonconstructive” towards Tehran’s nuclear program.

Kanaani stressed that the “Islamic Republic of Iran is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and for many years, especially during recent years, has allowed the agency’s inspectors to visit [Iran’s nuclear] facilities.”

In 2015 Iran signed the nuclear deal to curb its nuclear program in return to have some economic sanctions lifted, however, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 in order to reinstate the economic sanctions on Iran.

*^{Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows Centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (Image Credit: AEOI/via AP)}*

Since the U.S. has pulled out of the deal, Iran’s nuclear program has been progressing rapidly. The revival of Iran’s nuclear deal seemed to be approaching in March this year, however, the talks came to a halt when Iran conditioned that talks with the removal of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

IRGC is Iran’s top intelligence and elite arms unit that Washington accuses of a global terrorist campaign. U.S. President Joe Biden has made it clear that his administration does not plan to remove the IRGC from its FTO list anytime soon.