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Iran Threatens to Remove IAEA’s Cameras at Nuclear Sites

Bushehr Iran's nuclear facility (AFP)
Bushehr Iran's nuclear facility (AFP)
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Iran Threatens to Remove IAEA’s Cameras at Nuclear Sites

Bushehr Iran's nuclear facility (AFP)
Bushehr Iran's nuclear facility (AFP)

Iran reiterated its intention to remove the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) surveillance cameras from nuclear facilities if US sanctions are not lifted in three months.

The Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, affirmed in remarks on state TV that his country decided to remove the cameras.

Salehi asserted that Tehran is ready for diplomatic talks, but not in the way the United States and the Europeans imagine, insisting that sanctions should be lifted in advance as a precondition for negotiations.

He warned that Iran could increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent relatively quickly.

According to the international nuclear agreement, Iran is only allowed to enrich uranium to a level of less than four percent, while uranium must be enriched to 90 percent for a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, an Iranian document revealed that Tehran had threatened to end an agreement concluded with IAEA that temporarily maintains most of its monitoring if the agency’s board adopts a US-led effort to criticize Tehran next week.

Earlier, Tehran scaled back its cooperation with the Agency, ending extra inspection measures introduced by its 2015 nuclear accord with major powers, according to Reuters.

It was the latest of many steps retaliating for the US reimposed sanctions after former President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.

In its own paper sent to other IAEA member states ahead of next week’s quarterly meeting of the 35-nation Board of Governors, Washington said it wants a resolution to “express the Board’s deepening concern with respect to Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA”.

The US paper obtained by Reuters said the board should call on Iran to reverse its breaches of the deal and cooperate with the IAEA to explain how uranium particles were found at old, undeclared sites. The issue was first reported by the media and confirmed in an IAEA report this week.

“Iran perceives this move as destructive and considers it as an end to the Joint Understanding of 21 February 2021 between the Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iran said in its own paper sent to other countries and obtained by Reuters.

It said that this could lead to further complications in relation to the 2015 nuclear deal by its full name, adding that France, Britain, Germany, and the US had “revealed their plans” for a board resolution.

Diplomats said it was still unclear whether the board would adopt a resolution.

In June, after the IAEA said Iran had denied it access for snap inspections at two sites where it later found uranium particles, the board passed a resolution calling on Iran to relent, which was opposed by Russia and China.

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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit Mayotte's two main islands in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government's death toll stands at 35.

To commemorate Mayotte's losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.

"It is a communion in mourning," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was "present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country."

Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.

Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighboring Malawi.

ANGER

The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.

For Mohamed Abdou, a doctor in Pamandzi, the day of French mourning was a political stunt and did not do enough to account for historic neglect leading up to this point.

"Whether in terms of hospitals, the lack of water infrastructure, electricity, and so on ... at this point, we need to say 'mea culpa' and acknowledge mistakes were made," he told Reuters, speaking from his town in the south of Mayotte's smaller island.

Francois-Noel Buffet, France's acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water - a flashpoint even before the disaster - had made it to the island, saying: "We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution."

Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.

In Paris, Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.

Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticized the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who had not yet visited the islands, of "humiliating us a second time."