Iran to Install IAEA Cameras at Karaj Complex after Detailed Reviews: AEOI

A day after reports indicated that Iran had taken a voluntary measure to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to a number of cameras that had been damaged during a terrorist operation at the TESA Karaj Complex, a centrifuge component manufacturing workshop near Tehran, the AEOI spokesman,  Behrouz Kamalvandi, shed some details on the matter on Thursday, explaining that new equipment will be installed only after detailed reviews.

“Following exchanges of views between the AEOI and the IAEA, particularly based on recent talks between the heads of the agencies Mohammad Eslami and Rafael Grossi, it was decided that the IAEA will have the necessary cooperation (with Iran) in precise technical, security and judicial inspections of the Agency’s cameras at the TESA Karaj Complex. This measure is meant to soothe concerns that saboteurs may take advantage of the cameras,” he said.

“Of course, due to the immunity that these cameras have, it is not possible to open them without the consent of the Agency. To this end, the two sides agreed that a camera will be provided to Iran for detailed technical examination. The IAEA technicians will also answer the technical questions that our security and safety experts have regarding the cameras. Finally, after careful and necessary checks, the Agency’s cameras will be re-installed.”

Kamalvandi also noted that the IAEA cameras would take photos and store them. The memory cards will be extracted and sealed by both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog.

“In other words, the IAEA will in no way have access to this data,” he said. “This is in line with the Strategic Action Law that was approved by the Parliament to lift sanctions and protect the interests of the Iranian nation. Under the law, the IAEA cannot have oversight beyond the Safeguards Agreement.”

The recorded data, he added, will only be provided to the IAEA if the goal of the law is materialized, i.e. all sanctions are removed.

The Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency have clinched a “good deal” that could allay concerns about Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program,.

In comments at the conclusion of a meeting of heads of Iranian diplomatic missions in neighboring countries, held in Tehran on Wednesday, Amirabdollahian said Iran and the IAEA reached a good deal that could allay the concerns that have been raised about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

Meanwhile, in an exclusive report released on Wednesday, Noor News, an agency affiliated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said Iran’s initiative has prevented a misunderstanding in the relations between Iran and the IAEA with regard to an issue that the IAEA director general had raised two times during his visits to Tehran.

Considering that the main part of the judicial and security investigations on the cameras damaged in the TESA Karaj Complex of Iran has been completed, that the IAEA has condemned the act of sabotage in the complex, and that the IAEA has agreed that the Iranian experts would conduct technical checks on the cameras before installing them, Iran has voluntarily allowed the IAEA to replace the damaged cameras with new ones, the report said.

Iran and the P4+1 group of countries that comprises the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany, have been holding several rounds of talks in the Austrian capital.

The talks are aimed at examining the prospect of removal of the sanctions that the United States re-imposed against Tehran in 2018 after leaving a historic nuclear agreement between Iran and the above countries.