TEHRAN, Iran – The head of the United Nations ‘nuclear watchdog met with Iranian officials on Sunday in an attempt to preserve its inspectors’ ability to monitor Tehran’s nuclear program, even though authorities said they were planning to to cut off surveillance cameras on the sites.
Rafael Grossi’s arrival in Tehran comes as Iran tries to pressure Europe and the new Biden government to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from America in 2018.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who helped under President Hassan Rouhani to reach the nuclear deal, said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s cameras would be closed despite Grossi’s visit to pass a law passed by parliament , to follow.
“This is not a deadline for the world. This is not an ultimatum, ”Zarif said in an interview before meeting Grossi, with the government-oriented English-language broadcaster Press TV. “This is an internal domestic issue between parliament and the government.”
“We have a democracy. We are supposed to enforce the laws of the land. And parliament has passed legislation – whether we like it or not. ”
Zarif’s remarks were the highest recognition so far of what Iran intended to do when it stopped following the so-called ‘Additional Protocol’, a confidential agreement reached between Tehran and the IAEA as part of the nuclear deal. The IAEA has additional protocols with a number of countries it monitors.
“Under the protocol with Iran, the IAEA collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images taken daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said at the time that it had placed 2,000 toddler-resistant stamps on nuclear material. and equipment. ”
In his interview, Zarif said that according to legislation, authorities “should not supply the tires of the cameras”. It was not immediately clear whether this also meant that the cameras would be completely eliminated, as Zarif called it a “technical decision, it is not a political decision.”
“The IAEA will definitely not get recordings from the cameras,” Zarif said.
The Vienna-based IAEA did not respond to a request for comment on Zarif’s comments, although Grossi was expected to address journalists on his return to Vienna late Sunday night. The agency said last week that the visit was aimed at “finding a solution for the IAEA that is needed to continue with essential verification activities in the country.” ‘
There are 18 nuclear facilities 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 over the return to the nuclear deal, an offer Zarif had earlier rejected.
“He’s willing to go to the table to talk to the Iranians about how we get strict restrictions on their nuclear program,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation. “The offer still stands because we believe diplomacy is the best way to do it.”
Regarding US citizens detained by Iran, Sullivan added: “We have started communicating with the Iranians on this issue.”
Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told Sullivan late Sunday night 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 looking at US interests in the decades since the hostage crisis in 1979, had been sending messages between countries on prisoner issues since Biden took office.
Grossi met earlier Sunday with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s civilian nuclear program. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, later tweeted that “Iran and the IAEA have had fruitful talks based on mutual respect, the outcome of which will be announced tonight.”
In December, the Iranian parliament approved a bill that would suspend part of the UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories did not provide oil and banking sanctions by Tuesday.
Iran has already slowly moved away from all the restrictions of the nuclear deal on its uranium stock and has begun to enrich by 20%, a technical step away from the level of weapons. It also began with the turnaround of advanced centrifuges banned by the deal, which led Iran to limit its program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
An increasing series of incidents since Trump’s withdrawal have threatened the broader Middle East. More than a year ago, a U.S. drone strike killed an Iranian top general, prompting Tehran to later launch ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq.
A mysterious explosion also hit the Iranian Natanz nuclear facility, which Iran described as sabotage. In November, Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who founded the country’s military nuclear program some two decades earlier, was killed in an attack blaming Tehran on Israel.
Zarif referred to the attacks in his interview with state television and said that for security reasons the IAEA should keep some of its information confidential.
“Some of them may have security implications for Iran, whose peaceful nuclear sites have been attacked,” Zarif said. “For a country whose nuclear scientists have been killed in the past – and most recently with Mr Fakhrizadeh – during terrorist operations, confidentiality is essential.”