TEHRAN, Iran – The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog met with Iranian officials on Sunday in an effort to maintain the ability of his inspectors to monitor Tehran’s nuclear program, even as authorities said they were planning surveillance cameras on that locations.
Rafael Grossi’s arrival in Tehran comes as Iran tries to pressure Europe and the new Biden administration to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, from which President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled America back in 2018.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who helped achieve the nuclear deal under President Hassan Rouhani, said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s cameras would be shut down despite Grossi’s visit to follow a law that has been adopted by parliament.
“This is not a deadline for the world. This is not an ultimatum, ”Zarif told government-led, English-language broadcaster Press TV in an interview aired before meeting Grossi. “This is an internal domestic issue between the parliament and the government.”
‘We have a democracy. We are expected to implement the laws of the country. And parliament has passed legislation – whether we like it or not. “
Zarif’s comments were top-level recognition of what Iran intended to do when it stopped following the so-called “Additional Protocol,” a confidential agreement between Tehran and the IAEA reached as part of the nuclear deal. The IAEA has additional protocols with a number of countries it controls.
Under its protocol with Iran, the IAEA collects and analyzes “hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its advanced surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said at the time that it had “applied 2,000 tamper-resistant seals to nuclear material.” and equipment. “
In his interview, Zarif said the authorities “would be legally obliged not to provide the tapes of those cameras.” It was not immediately clear whether that also meant a complete shutdown of the cameras, as Zarif called it a “technical decision, that’s not a political decision”.
“The IAEA certainly does not get images from those cameras,” said Zarif.
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 evening. The agency said last week that the visit was aimed at finding “a mutually acceptable solution for the IAEA to continue vital verification activities in the country.”
There are 18 nuclear facilities and nine other sites in Iran under IAEA safeguards.
Out of Washington, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden remained willing to negotiate with Iran about a return to the nuclear deal, an offer previously rejected by Zarif.
“He’s willing to come 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.” “That offer is still valid, because we believe that diplomacy is the best way to do it.”
On US citizens detained by Iran, Sullivan added, “We have started communicating with the Iranians on this issue.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state television late Sunday evening in response to Sullivan that “there are no direct talks between Iran and the US in any area.” However, Khatibzadeh said the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which has served US interests in the decades since the 1979 hostage crisis, has been relaying messages between the countries on prisoner issues since Biden took office.
Grossi met with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s civilian nuclear program, earlier on Sunday. Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, later tweeted that “Iran and the IAEA have had fruitful discussions based on mutual respect, the outcome of which will be announced tonight.”
Iran’s parliament passed a bill in December that would suspend some of its UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories fail to provide relief from oil and banking sanctions on Tuesday.
Iran has already slowly moved away from all of the nuclear deal’s restrictions on its uranium supply and has begun enriching 20%, a technical move away from the level of weapons. It has also started running advanced centrifuges blocked by the deal, causing Iran to curtail its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
An escalating series of incidents since Trump’s withdrawal has threatened the wider Middle East. More than a year ago, a US drone strike killed a top Iranian general, later causing Tehran to launch ballistic missiles that injured dozens of US troops in Iraq.
A mysterious explosion also hit Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz, which Iran has described as sabotage. In November, Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who founded the country’s military nuclear program some 20 years earlier, was killed in an attack that Tehran blames on Israel.
Zarif brought up the attacks in his interview with state television and said the IAEA should keep some of his information confidential for security reasons.
“Some of them may have implications for the security of Iran, whose peaceful nuclear sites have been attacked,” Zarif said. “For a country whose nuclear scientists have been murdered in terrorist operations in the past – and now with Mr Fakhrizadeh recently – confidentiality is essential.”