UN Watchdog Says Iran To Allow New Cameras At Nuclear Site

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and Iran have reached a deal to reinstall cameras damaged at an Iranian site that manufactures centrifuge parts.

The agreement will see cameras put back at Karaj, which came under what Iran describes as a sabotage attack in June, although inspectors remain limited on what footage they can access.

Iran had since refused the International Atomic Energy Agency access to replace cameras damaged in the incident, part of an ongoing hard-line tact taken by Tehran at negotiations underway in Vienna over its tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Iranian media first reported the deal without citing a source. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi later tweeted out a statement detailing the arrangement.

The IAEA said the cameras would be reinstalled at Karaj in the “coming days.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian reportedly said earlier Wednesday that Iran had “reached a good agreement” with the IAEA.

Tehran blamed the Karaj assault on Israel amid a widening regional shadow war since former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s landmark nuclear accord with world powers.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Prwith Newsmen, Grossi warned that limited access to Karaj hurt international efforts to monitor Iran’s program.

Grossi also dismissed as “simply absurd” an Iranian allegation that saboteurs used the IAEA’s cameras in the attack on the Karaj centrifuge site. Tehran has offered no evidence to support the claim, though it’s another sign of the friction between inspectors and Iran.