TEHRAN — Iran and a UN watchdog said Wednesday they
have reached agreement on replacing cameras at a nuclear complex, as Western
powers warn time is running out to revive a deal on Tehran's atomic program.
اضافة اعلان
The Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
had been seeking to replace the devices which Iran says were damaged in a June
attack it blames on Israel.
The IAEA "will soon install new surveillance cameras at
Iran's Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop under an agreement
reached today by Director General
Rafael Mariano Grossi and the Head of the
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami," an IAEA statement
said, calling this "an important development".
It added that the two sides "will continue to work on
remaining outstanding safeguards issues with the aim of resolving them".
Earlier this year Iran began restricting some IAEA
inspection activity as part of steps it has taken away from the 2015 nuclear
deal with world powers after the US unilaterally pulled out in 2018 and
reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.
"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 nuclear site, said Iran's Nour news agency, considered close
to the Islamic republic's Supreme National Security Council.
"This is a voluntary action by Iran to end
misunderstandings in its relations with the IAEA," it said.
Grossi held talks in Tehran last month aiming to tackle the
constraints on inspections, outstanding questions over the presence of
undeclared nuclear material at sites in Iran, and the treatment of IAEA staff
in the country.
Those talks were "inconclusive" but
"constructive", he later said, just before talks resumed between
Tehran and several global powers to revive the 2015 agreement which aims to
prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb.
"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," the Nour report said.
The development was also reported by other Iranian news
agencies.
Iran accuses Israel of being behind the attack on the TESA
Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop on June 23.
At the time, it had said it thwarted the attack on the
building without identifying the nature of the incident.
Until Wednesday, Iran had turned down the IAEA's requests to
replace the cameras.
The Islamic republic has always denied wanting a nuclear
arsenal.
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