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Iran has installed 27 surveillance cameras at nuclear sites across the country, the U. N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, further undermining the agency’s ability to track uranium enrichment in Tehran, which is now closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
The progression comes a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors blamed Tehran for failing to provide “credible information” about man-made nuclear energy discovered at three undeclared sites in the country.
It also follows months of stalled negotiations to repair the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and global powers. Tensions remain high across the Middle East following the collapse of the deal, as U. S. sanctions and emerging global food costs stifle Iran’s ailing economy, putting further pressure on its government and people.
“This, of course, poses a serious challenge to our ability to continue to function there,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned.
He added that if a deal to repair the cameras is not reached within 3 or 4 weeks, it would “deal a fatal blow” to the tattered Iran nuclear deal. Grossi had warned in the past that without the cameras, Iran could simply make centrifuges and divert them to unknown locations.
”When we lose this, then it’s anybody’s guess,” he added.
Iran did not immediately realize it was withdrawing the 27 cameras, as it had previously threatened to take more punitive measures. State media on Thursday broadcast footage showing personnel cutting through two IAEA cameras.
“We hope that they come to their senses and respond to Iran’s cooperation with cooperation,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, an Iranian nuclear program spokesman, said Wednesday of the IAEA officials. “It is not acceptable that they show inappropriate behavior while Iran continues to cooperate.”
Grossi made the comments at a news conference in Vienna, alongside an example of cameras installed across Iran. He said Iran would remove IAEA cameras from some sites, adding in Tehran, the underground nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, the Isfahan facility and the Arak heavy water reactor at Khondab.
“About 40” IAEA cameras would remain active in Iran, Grossi said, even though Tehran has already been withholding IAEA footage since February 2021 as a means of pressure to repair the atomic deal.
“We are in a very tense situation, with negotiations on the revival of the nuclear deal at an all-time low,” Grossi added. “Now we’re going to add that to the council. So, as you can see, it’s not very pretty.
On Wednesday, Iran said it had disabled two devices used through the IAEA to monitor enrichment at Natanz. Grossi said as much on Thursday, saying that among the devices that were disposed of were the online enrichment monitor and meter. These monitor the enrichment of uranium gas through the pipelines of enrichment facilities and allow inspectors to monitor the work remotely.
The IAEA said on Thursday that Iran had informed the company of its goal to install two new cascades of the IR-6 centrifuge at Natanz. A cascade is a series of centrifuges connected in combination to spin uranium fuel for enrichment.
An IR-6 centrifuge spins uranium 10 times faster than the first-generation centrifuges Iran once limited itself to under its nuclear deal with world powers. In February, Iran had already rotated a cascade of IR-6s at its underground facility in Fordo, according to the IAEA.
Iran previously announced that it plans to install an IR-6 cascade at Natanz. The IAEA said it had “verified” the ongoing installation of the waterfall on Monday, while the installation of the other two recently promised waterfalls had yet to begin.
Iran and world powers agreed in 2015 to the nuclear deal, in which Tehran drastically restricted its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. In 2018, President Trump unilaterally withdrew the U. S. from the deal, escalating tensions across the Middle East and triggering a series of attacks and other incidents.
Talks in Vienna on reviving the deal have been stalled since April. Since the breakdown of the deal, Iran has been employing complex centrifuges and expanding its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Nonproliferation experts warn that Iran has enriched itself enough to 60% purity (a small technical step compared to military-grade levels of 90%) to make a nuclear weapon if it chooses to do so.
Iran insists its program is for nonviolent purposes, even though U. N. experts and Western intelligence agencies say Tehran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003.
Building a nuclear bomb would take Iran even longer if it seeks a nuclear weapon, analysts say, though they warn that Tehran’s advances make the program more dangerous. Israel has threatened to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran. . . And he is already suspected of being involved in a series of recent assassinations of Iranian officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed the IAEA board’s vote on Wednesday to censure Tehran, calling it “a resolution that shows the true face of Iran. “
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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