Iran reneges on IAEA access to site where cameras were damaged

Laurence Norman tweeted that the IAEA itself would soon confirm the Islamic Republic’s latest obstruction in the ongoing nuclear standoff.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi attend a news conference, in Tehran, Iran, September 12, 2021. (photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi attend a news conference, in Tehran, Iran, September 12, 2021.
(photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

Iran has reneged on allowing a recent deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency for access to its Karaj nuclear facility, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday.

"The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) stresses that Iran's decision not to allow agency access to the TESA Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop is contrary to the agreed terms of the joint statement issued on 12 September," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

"Iran from 20–22 September permitted IAEA inspectors to service identified agency monitoring and surveillance equipment and to replace storage media at all necessary locations in Iran with the exception of the centrifuge component manufacturing workshop at the TESA Karaj complex," the IAEA statement said further.

In mid-September, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi announced he had reached a deal with the new Iranian government, which was elected in mid-June, that could break the logjam which had led Tehran to block the agency’s inspections since May.

A major revelation that came out of the announcement of the deal was that various IAEA monitoring cameras had been destroyed, damaged or shut off.

However, Grossi said he had received guarantees from Iran that it would almost immediately grant access to fix and otherwise restore the cameras’ monitoring.

Based on this deal, there was a sudden wave of optimism in the West that the ayatollahs may have concluded that they had pushed their obstructionist posture and strategy of increased violations of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal as far as they could go.

Warehouse fire along Karaj Special Road near Tehran, July 5, 2021 (credit: VAHID AHMADI/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Warehouse fire along Karaj Special Road near Tehran, July 5, 2021 (credit: VAHID AHMADI/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)

Yet, Sunday’s announcement could indicate either that there will be multiple additional bumps before a restoration of serious negotiations to end the Islamic Republic’s violations, or that there was no real deal, only a tactical move by Tehran to delay the West from cracking down on it.

A Wall Street Journal report from Sunday also predicted that Iran will claim safety issues and the need to continue to collect forensic evidence as a basis for delaying access.

But, as the report points out, Iran is public as having restarted operating Karaj after the June attack that Iran has attributed, and The Jerusalem Post has validated, to the Mossad.

If Tehran was operating Karaj even after the attack, its latest defenses for impeding IAEA access could be exposed as contrived.

Broadly speaking, the US has said it would lift sanctions if the Islamic Republic ends its nuclear violations.