DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will only turn on the surveillance cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the 2015 agreement on its nuclear program is reactivated, the head of the Organization announced on Monday. Iranian atomic energy company, according to official Iranian media.
Mohammad Eslami added that Iran would not accept to provide explanations on the presence of traces of uranium, as requested by the Agency, explaining that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) negotiated in 2015 demonstrated that Tehran’s nuclear development program had no military aim.
“The military development projects and sites of our nuclear program have been abandoned under the terms of the (2015) agreement and if (the West) were sincere, they would know that these files will not be reopened”, Iranian state media reported, citing Mohammad Eslami.
Iran announced last June the withdrawal of IAEA surveillance cameras, including 27 of them installed under the 2015 agreement, after the agency’s board of governors passed a resolution criticizing Tehran’s insufficient cooperation in providing explanations for the presence of traces of uranium at three undeclared sites.
“We will not connect the IAEA cameras again until the other parties come back to the (2015) agreement,” said Mohammad Eslami.
Signed in 2015 by Iran and the “P5+1” (the five members of the UN Security Council – United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain – and Germany), the JCPOA provided limitations on the Iranian nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
The United States withdrew from the Vienna agreement in May 2018 at the instigation of former President Donald Trump. Discussions for their reinstatement, which began in 2021, have stalled for the time being.
(Dubai editorial report; French version Camille Raynaud, edited by Sophie Louet)
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