TEHRAN, Iran – The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met with Iranian officials on Sunday in an attempt to maintain the ability of his inspectors to monitor Tehran’s nuclear program, even though authorities said they intend to cut surveillance cameras in those places. .
Rafael Grossi’s arrival in Tehran comes as Iran tries to pressure Europe and the new Biden administration to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, from which President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America in 2018.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who under President Hassan Rouhani contributed to the nuclear deal, said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s chambers would be closed despite Grossi’s visit to follow a law passed by parliament.
“This is not a deadline for the world. This is not an ultimatum, “Zarif told the government-run English-language Press TV in an interview before meeting Grossi. “This is an internal internal issue between parliament and government.”
“We have a democracy. We should implement the laws of the land. And the parliament has passed the legislation – like it or not ”.
Zarif’s comments marked the highest recognition of what Iran intended to do when it ceased to follow the so-called “Additional Protocol”, a confidential agreement between Tehran and the IAEA concluded as part of the nuclear deal. The IAEA has additional protocols with a number of countries that it monitors.
According to the protocol with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said at the time that it had placed 2,000 seals against the handling of nuclear materials and equipment. . ”
In his interview, Zarif said the authorities would be “required by law not to provide cassettes to those cameras.” It was not immediately clear whether this would also mean that the cameras would be completely shut down, as Zarif called it “a technical decision, this is not a political decision.”
“The IAEA will certainly not get images from these cameras,” Zarif said.
The IAEA in Vienna did not respond to a request for comment on Zarif’s comments, although Grossi was expected to address reporters on his return to Vienna late Sunday evening. Last week, the agency said the visit was aimed at finding “a mutually agreed solution for the IAEA to continue key verification activities in the country”.
There are 18 nuclear installations and nine other locations in Iran under IAEA guarantees.
From Washington, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden was willing to negotiate with Iran on a return to the nuclear deal, an offer previously rejected by Zarif.
“He’s ready to go to the table to talk to the Iranians about how we’re getting strict constraints on their nuclear program,” Sullivan told CBS’s “Make the Nation.” “This offer remains valid because we believe diplomacy is the best way to do it.”
As for the US citizens held by Iran, Sullivan added: “We have started communicating with the Iranians on this issue.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state television on Sunday evening, telling Sullivan that “there are no direct talks between Iran and the United States in any area.” However, Khatibzadeh said the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which had been pursuing American interests in the decades since the 1979 hostage crisis, had been sending messages between countries about prisoners’ problems since Biden took office.
Grossi met with Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s head of Iran’s civilian nuclear program, earlier Sunday. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, later posted on Twitter that “Iran and the IAEA have had fruitful talks based on mutual respect, the outcome of which will be released tonight.”
Iran’s parliament approved a bill in December that would suspend some UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories did not offer an exemption from oil and banking sanctions by Tuesday.
Already, Iran has slowly moved away from the limits of the nuclear deal on its uranium stock and has begun to enrich itself by 20%, a technical step away from the level of weapons. It has also started spinning advanced centrifuges banned by the agreement, which has seen Iran limit its program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
A series of rising incidents since Trump’s retirement has threatened the Middle East. More than a year ago, a drone strike in the United States killed a top Iranian general, prompting Tehran to later launch ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American troops in Iraq.
A mysterious explosion also hit the Iranian nuclear plant Natanz, which Iran described as sabotage. In November, Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who founded the country’s military nuclear program about two decades earlier, was killed in an attack that Tehran blames on Israel.
Zarif brought the attacks in his interview with state television, saying the IAEA must keep some information confidential for security reasons.
“Some of them may have security ramifications for Iran, whose peaceful nuclear sites have been attacked,” Zarif said. “For a country whose nuclear scientists have been killed in terrorist operations in the past – and now recently with Mr Fakhrizadeh – confidentiality is essential.”