IAEA 'doubts' Iran surveillance camera's footage from nuclear facility simply disappeared

The United Nations atomic watchdog on Friday  expressed doubts that footage from a surveillance camera at an Iranian centrifuge plant went missing after an apparent Israeli spy agency Mossad’s sabotage in June. Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on Friday that in the agreement struck between Iran and the IAEA on Wednesday, the Islamic Republic did not address the issue. And while the two sides agreed for the IAEA to re-install cameras at the Karaj nuclear facility which were taken down by Iran after the attack that it blames on Israel, the previous footage could not be accessed. 

The European negotiators had earlier warned that attempts to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is “rapidly reaching the end of the road” talks in Vienna were ended without definite conclusion and Iranian negotiators returned home for so-called ‘consultation’.

“We hope that Iran is in a position to resume the talks quickly, and to engage constructively so that talks can move at a faster pace,” France, Germany, and the UK in a joint statement said, according to The Guardian newspaper. 

“As we have said, there are weeks not months before the deal’s core non-proliferation benefits are lost. We are rapidly reaching the end of the road for this negotiation,” they further warned.

Iran agrees to replace its surveillance cameras

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the nuclear watchdog’s 35-member Board of Governors that the meeting with Tehran was “inconclusive.” Meanwhile, the US board members also threatened “to confront” Islamic Republic if it “does not cooperate.” Iran’s new negotiators then returned to the resumed talks with new texts, and new nuclear commitments, disregarding the previous compromises reached between the IAEA, Iran, and the member countries. 

On Wednesday this week, Iran agreed to replace its surveillance cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop which was removed after the attack. But the previous footage was not handed to the UN atomic watchdog. "The agreement with Iran on replacing surveillance cameras at the Karaj facility is an important development for the IAEA's verification and monitoring activities in Iran," the IAEA said in a statement. "It will enable us to resume necessary continuity of knowledge at this facility," it added. The IAEA plans to install the new cameras in the weeks ahead.