IAEA Allowed Access to Karaj Sabotage Site

Will West Reciprocate Iran’s Goodwill?

Date: 15 December 2021 - 21:55

News ID: ۹۷۸۱۳

TEHRAN – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Wednesday it has been given access once again by Iran to a centrifuge parts manufacturing facility in Karaj to replace cameras that were damaged or destroyed when the site was targeted by a sabotage attack in June this year.
“In a gesture of goodwill, Iran is allowing the IAEA to install new cameras to replace those damaged in a sabotage operation” against the Karaj site, said the Nour News agency, considered close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“This is a voluntary action by Iran to end misunderstandings in its relations with the IAEA,” it said.
“Due to the completion of the safety investigation of the damaged cameras, as well as the agency’s decision to condemn the sabotage in the Tesa complex and to accept the technical inspection of the cameras by Iranian experts before their installation, Iran has authorized the agency to replace the damaged cameras with new ones,” it added.
The report added that security and judicial investigations into the attack were concluded and that the IAEA recently agreed to Iran’s request and condemned the terrorist act widely believed to have been carried out by the occupying regime of Israel.
As per a law passed by the Iranian parliament, the IAEA will not have access to the recordings from the cameras which will be installed “after technical reviews by Iranian experts”.
“The agreement with Iran on replacing surveillance cameras at the Karaj facility is an important development for the IAEA’s verification and monitoring activities in Iran. It will enable us to resume necessary continuity of knowledge at this facility,” IAEA Director General Grossi said in a statement.
“I sincerely hope that we can continue our constructive discussions to also address and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues in Iran.”
Since February 2021, Iran has stopped the voluntary implementation of the Addition Protocol, a document that provided the IAEA with extended monitoring activities.
The cameras have not stopped recording, but Iran has said it will hand over the recordings only when the United States – which unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 – removes sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Representatives of the remaining parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the deal is formally known, are currently in Vienna in an effort to revive the deal by bringing back the U.S. to compliance and persuade it to remove its draconian sanctions on Iran.

The reinstallation of cameras and “other related technical activities” will take place before the end of the year, the agency added in the statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian told a gathering of Iranian diplomats in the capital Tehran that Iran and the IAEA reached a “good agreement” on Tuesday night, adding that it was reached by a delegation from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in Vienna.
He also renewed his criticism of the agency by saying the IAEA engages in political rhetoric that goes beyond its technical mandate.
In Vienna, meanwhile, Iran presented two documents that contain its proposals on the removal of sanctions and its nuclear obligations.
“Our Iranian colleagues have presented their demands rather transparently and put forward their proposals in a written form. From Russia’s point of view, this is a step forward because neither a written agreement nor an official consensus was reached at the end of the previous six rounds of negotiations,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Wednesday.
He also said the stances of the trio, namely France, Britain and Germany, “are surprising. It is as if it is their first time sitting down at the negotiation table. They tend to adopt some illogical positions”.
“At a meeting among Russian representatives, [U.S. Special Envoy for Iran] Rob Malley and Chinese delegates, I made it clear that we do not practically understand what the Europeans say. Their stances are unconstructive and destructive. Our understanding of negotiations and diplomacy is different from theirs. We consider such standpoints as unconstructive,” he added.
Ulyanov also said Washington’s “maximum pressure” against Iran has turned out to be completely unconstructive, because it has increased the suffering of the Iranian nation and resulted in problems and humanitarian crises without yielding any positive results even for the United States.
Since the beginning of the Vienna talks in April, France, Britain and Germany, also known as E3, have pressed Iran to return to full compliance with its nuclear obligations under the JCPOA, ignoring the fact that the talks are aimed at bringing the U.S. back to the deal by removing its anti-Iran sanctions.
On Tuesday, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Baqeri-Kani said, “Some actors persist in their blame game habit, instead of real diplomacy. We proposed our ideas early, and worked constructively and flexibly to narrow gaps.”
“Diplomacy is a two-way street. If there’s real will to remedy the culprit’s wrongdoing, the way for a quick, good deal will be paved,” he added.