Iran has removed 27 surveillance cameras from nuclear sites around the country impeding the ability to monitor the country’s nuclear activities, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday.
Grossi called the action a “serious challenge” and said that in a matter of weeks the IAEA would no longer have a “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s nuclear programs.
"This would be a fatal blow" to negotiations over Iran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers, Grossi said. "When we lose this, then it's anybody's guess," he added.
Grossi said “40-something” cameras remained at some nuclear facilities.
The sites that would see cameras removed include its underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, as well as its facility in Isfahan, Grossi said.
Talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have been stalled since April. The U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump. The Biden administration has unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a U.S. return to the deal.
Meanwhile, experts say Iran is nearing having enough weapons-grade enriched uranium to make one nuclear bomb.
Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Some information in this report comes from the Associated Press and Reuters.
