TEHRAN -- The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Sunday it allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reinstall surveillance cameras at the TESA Karaj Complex only after the UN nuclear agency met Tehran’s preconditions.
Behrouz Kamalvandi said Iran will start technical and security examination of the IAEA’s cameras Sunday before they are set up at the facility.
Kamalvandi explained that Iran’s preconditions included technical and security examination of the new IAEA cameras, judicial and security investigations into the dimensions of the June attack against the facility, which damaged the previous cameras, and also the IAEA’s condemnation of such acts of sabotage.
“Iran’s voluntary action to issue a permit to replace those cameras came not in the form of a new agreement, but rather after those three preconditions were met,” the AEOI’s spokesman said.
The remarks came days after the AEOI announced it would voluntarily allow the IAEA to replace its damaged cameras.
Kamalvandi said Iranian technical and security experts are concerned that the cameras may have been used directly or indirectly in the June sabotage act.
“For this reason, we have been in contact and negotiations with the Agency for a long time, and finally, the Agency agreed to provide us with a sample camera for thorough examination, and in addition, technical inspections will be carried out on the cameras that were damaged,” he said.
Kamalvandi made it clear that since Iran’s preconditions are being met by the IAEA, the UN nuclear agency’s new cameras will probably be installed in the coming days.
However, he emphasized that the footage recorded by the IAEA surveillance cameras will not be shared with the Agency so long as the anti-Iran sanctions are in place.
The data will be provided to the IAEA once the sanctions are removed and Iran’s Parliament gives the green light, he added.
Under a law passed by the Iranian parliament in December 2020, the AEOI is tasked with restricting IAEA inspections and accelerating the country’s nuclear program beyond the limits set by the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.
The law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, halted all inspections of Iran nuclear facilities beyond the Safeguards Agreement, in a move – as the name suggests – to push the U.S. to remove its sanctions.
While adhering to the law, the AEOI has continued its constructive cooperation with the IAEA throughout 2021, under both Hassan Rouhani and Ebrahim Raisi administrations.
Iran began to advance its nuclear program beyond the limits set by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2019, a year after the U.S. withdrew from the agreement and set in motion what it called the “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.
Allowing the IAEA to install new cameras at the TESA Karaj Complex is seen as another attempt by the Islamic Republic to give diplomacy a chance amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna to remove draconian U.S. sanctions on Iran.