The world's leading nuclear watchdog issued reports Wednesday detailing its conflicts with Iran, from the rough treatment of its inspectors to challenges with reinstalling cameras it deems "essential" for the revival of the nuclear agreement.
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Indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 deal – known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – are due to resume on Nov. 29, after a quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors at which diplomats say no action is likely to be taken against Iran for fear of harming the talks.
But in two confidential reports to member states seen by Reuters, the IAEA said Iran had still not granted its inspectors the access it promised two months ago to reinstall surveillance cameras at a workshop that was the victim of apparent sabotage in June. Iran attributed the attack to Israel.
"This is seriously affecting the agency's ability to restore continuity of knowledge at the workshop, which has been widely recognized as essential in relation to a return to the JCPOA," one of the reports said.
That deal with major powers lifted sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on the regime's nuclear activities. Washington pulled out under then-President Donald Trump in 2018, prompting Tehran to breach many of the restrictions.
The workshop at the TESA Karaj complex makes components for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium. One of four IAEA cameras there was destroyed. Iran then removed them all, and the footage from the destroyed camera is missing.
TESA Karaj was one of several sites where Iran agreed on Sept. 12 to grant IAEA inspectors access to service monitoring equipment and replace memory cards due to fill up with camera footage and other data. Access was granted at the other sites.
The other report said Iranian security guards continued to perform "excessively invasive physical searches" of IAEA inspectors.
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