No access for IAEA to surveillance camera data unless nuke deal revived: Iranian envoy

Tehran, April 15 The information stored on surveillance cameras installed in Iran's nuclear sites will not be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency before the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal, the official IRNA news agency quoted an Iranian official as saying.

"The agency has no access to the data in the memory of the installed cameras and the relevant information will be stored with Iran and will not be provided to the agency" until Iran returns to the implementation of the nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said Mohammad Reza Ghaebi, Head of Iran's permanent mission to international organisations in Vienna, on Thursday.

The Iranian envoy also clarified the recent reports run by Western media, which said Iran has opened up a new nuclear facility in Natanz, central Iran, and pointed out that Iran only transferred the facilities in a plant in Karaj to the Natanz plant.

Ghaebi said the transfer was carried out on April 4, and it was caused by a "sabotage act" in June 2021, making the Karaj plant no longer safe to run, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Iranian side informed the UN nuclear watchdog about its plan on the same day of the transfer, the Iranian official added.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers, including the United States. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in the Austrian capital between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the deal.

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