IAEA monitors nuclear activities without access, Iran says

TEHERAN－The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, or AEOI, says the International Atomic Energy Organization, or IAEA, continues to monitor activities in the country's nuclear sites, but it has no access to the recorded information in its cameras.

"Monitoring continues, but until a (nuclear) agreement is reached, the information will remain with us and will probably be deleted," Iran's Arabic language news network Al-Alam quoted Behrooz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the AEOI, as saying.

Regarding the transfer of some nuclear facilities in Karaj, near the capital Teheran, to Natanz complex in central Iran, he said: "Unfortunately due to the terrorist operation against Karaj facilities, we had to intensify security measures and moved an important part of these machines.

"Centrifuge machines have been moved to a safer location because of their importance, and they are now operating."

On April 4 Iran told the UN nuclear watchdog about its plan to transfer the producing machines of centrifuge parts from Karaj to Natanz.

Kamalvandi said that with the agreement reached with the IAEA, issues regarding Iran's past would be resolved by June.

"We do not have any technical issues at the moment, although there might be some small issues that are being solved."

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, 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.

Talks stalled

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

Iran has seen a surge in its production and exportation of oil and gas since 2021 as the country works to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

In the Monthly Oil Market Report in February, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries put Iran's average production last year at slightly more than 2.4 million barrels a day, compared with an average of 2 million barrels a day in 2020.

Javad Owji, Iran's minister of petroleum, said this month that the US' goals of reducing Iran's oil sales to zero, pursuant to its maximum pressure campaign, had not been realized.

Xinhua - Agencies