IAEA Informed of Iran’s Plan to Keep Up Nuclear Sites Recordings for Another Month
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency of its decision to continue recoding data at its nuclear sites for one more month beyond the expiry of a February agreement with the UN nuclear agency, the Iranian envoy to the Vienna-based international organizations said.
Kazem Gharibabadi told reporters on Monday that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has informed the IAEA of Tehran’s decision to keep recording data with the cameras at the nuclear sites for at most one more month.
The data recorded during the past three months are still at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran’s disposal and would not be transferred to the IAEA, he added.
“The data of the next one month will also be kept inside Iran. As regards the deletion or the transfer of data, the same conditions in the three-month mutual understanding will still prevail,” Gharibabadi added.
The envoy advised the parties engaged in the negotiations for the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to seize the opportunity provided by Iran’s goodwill and terminate the sanctions in a practical and verifiable manner.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s director general visited Tehran on February 23 to discuss how to work with Iran in light of its plan to halt the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
According to a three-month technical agreement with the IAEA, Iran has been recording information offline at its nuclear sites, but had warned that a lack of breakthrough in the Vienna negotiations on reviving the JCPOA would mean that the UN nuclear agency will have no access to the information, the cameras will be turned off, and the data will be deleted.
A new round of talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action began in Vienna on April 6 between Iran and the remaining members of the nuclear deal, namely the UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany.
The US left the JCPOA in 2018 and restored the economic sanctions that the accord had lifted. Tehran retaliated with remedial nuclear measures that it is entitled to take under the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36.
The current negotiations examine the potential of revitalization of the nuclear deal and the US’ likely return to it.
