Photo: The Canadian Press
Iran on Wednesday shut down two surveillance devices used by UN inspectors to monitor uranium enrichment in the Islamic Republic, further exacerbating the crisis over its nuclear program as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers continue in pieces.
The move appeared to be a new pressure technique, as Western nations are trying to censor Iran at a meeting this week in Vienna at the International Atomic Energy Agency. Censorship deals with what the surveillance agency refers to as Iran’s failure to provide “credible information” on nuclear material found in undeclared sites across the country.
But Iran’s latest measure, announced by state television, makes it even harder for inspectors to control Tehran’s nuclear program. Non-proliferation experts have warned that Iran now has enough uranium enriched near weapons grade levels to pursue an atomic bomb if it so chooses.
The state television report, later repeated by other Iranian media, said authorities had turned off the “cameras beyond the guarantees of the on-line enrichment monitor … and the flowmeter.” This apparently refers to IAEA online monitors watching uranium gas enrichment through pipes in enrichment facilities.
In 2016, the IAEA said it installed the device for the first time at the Iranian underground nuclear facility in Natanz, its main enrichment site, 200 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran. The device made it possible to “monitor 24 hours a day” the waterfalls of the installation, a series of connected centrifuges to quickly turn the uranium gas to enrich it.
“Traditional methods of sampling and analysis can take three weeks or more, mainly due to the time it takes to send the sample from Iran to IAEA laboratories in Austria,” the agency said at the time.
Iran is also enriching uranium in its underground facilities in Fordo, although the IAEA is not known to have installed these devices there.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far had extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” state television said in a report on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the agency, without considering this cooperation … not only did not appreciate this cooperation, but also considered it a duty of Iran.”
Tehran said its civilian nuclear arm, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, oversaw the shutdown of the cameras. He said that 80% of the existing cameras are IAEA “safeguard” cameras and will continue to operate as before. Safeguards refer to IAEA inspections and monitoring of a country’s nuclear program.
However, an Iranian official warned IAEA officials that Tehran was now also considering “other measures”.
“We hope that they will come to their senses and respond to Iran’s cooperation with cooperation,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. “It is not acceptable for them to behave inappropriately while Iran continues to cooperate.”
The Vienna-based IAEA declined to comment immediately. However, Iran’s move came after IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi criticized Iran for failing to provide “credible information” about unexplained and artificial nuclear material discovered at three undeclared Iranian sites. , a point of discussion between the agency and Tehran.
Iran has been holding images from IAEA surveillance cameras since February 2021 as a pressure tactic to restore the atomic agreement.
Iran and the world powers agreed on a nuclear deal in 2015, which saw Tehran drastically limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal, raising tensions across the Middle East and provoking a series of attacks and incidents.
Talks in Vienna over Iran’s broken nuclear deal have been stalled since April. Since the collapse of the agreement, Iran has advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing uranium-rich storage. Non-proliferation experts warn that Iran has enriched enough up to 60% purity, a brief technical step from 90% weapon grade levels, to making a nuclear weapon if it decides to do so.
Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, although UN experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had a military nuclear program in place until 2003.
Building a nuclear bomb would take even longer in Iran if it were to pursue a weapon, analysts say, but warns that Tehran’s advances make the program more dangerous. Israel has in the past threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike to stop Iran, and a number of recent killings of Iranian officials are already suspected.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and spoke of the need to revive the nuclear deal, the Kremlin said.
In a statement to the IAEA on Tuesday, France, Germany and the United Kingdom warned that measures taken by Tehran were “further reducing the time it would take for Iran to explode into a first nuclear weapon and is fueling mistrust in Iran’s intentions. “
“The IAEA has been without crucial access to data on the manufacture of centrifuges and components for a year and a half,” the statement said. “This means that neither the agency nor the international community knows how many centrifuges Iran has in its inventory, how many were built and where they can be located.”
The countries urged Iran “to stop scaling up its nuclear program and to urgently conclude (the agreement) that is on the table.”
But just before the camera’s announcement, the head of Iran’s nuclear organization insisted the country has no secret nuclear activity and accused the West of making a “political move” in an attempt to censor Iran.
“Iran has had the utmost cooperation with the IAEA,” Mohammad Eslami was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.