Iran to remove 27 IAEA cameras from nuclear facilities

Iran has started to remove 27 cameras and other monitoring equipment installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today, 9 June, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said. The move will have "possible consequences", he said, as it will hinder the work of the agency in Iran.

Tehran removing the 27 cameras "poses a serious challenge to our ability to continue working there and to confirm the correctness of Iran's declaration under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," Grossi said.

He said the window of opportunity for the IAEA to maintain "continuity of knowledge" about Iranian nuclear activities is "very small" as a consequence of the cameras' removal. The IAEA's visibility on Iran's activity will decrease, and "if there was a return to the JCPOA, the agency would not be able to advise on a baseline," he said.

Grossi said IAEA inspectors will accompany removal activities and the agency "will take it from there". He said all the equipment that had been installed under the JCPOA, beyond the comprehensive safeguard agreement (CSA), in locations such as Natanz, Isfahan, Tehran and Khondab, is being removed. Around 40 cameras will remain under the CSA, he said. Grossi described the situation as "very tense".

"With the negotiations of the revival of the JCPOA at a low ebb… with our bilateral process with Iran… not being successful so far, now we are adding this to the picture which as you can see is not a very nice one," he said.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation had already said on 8 June it had disabled two cameras that served the IAEA because "extensive co-operation" was taken for granted as "the duty of Iran".

The IAEA installed cameras in Iran in 2016, following the 2015 JCPOA agreement between Tehran and world powers. But since the US withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed punitive commercial sanctions on Iran in 2018, Tehran has been accused by western powers of advancing its nuclear programme.

The removal of the extra devices comes as Iran's foreign ministry said the adoption of a resolution calling on Iran to resume full co-operation with the IAEA's monitoring of its nuclear activities on 8 June was "political, erroneous and unconstructive."

Tehran said the resolution was based on a "hasty and unbalanced report" by the body's director general Rafael Grossi and "fabricated information" provided by Israel, and warned it will "weaken the process of co-operation and interaction" between Tehran and the IAEA.

By Ben Winkley and Caroline Varin