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Tehran: We Will Not Hand Over CCTV Recordings Before Lifting of Sanctions

Photo released by the Iranian embassy in Vienna, where chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani looks at a French paper on Thursday.
Photo released by the Iranian embassy in Vienna, where chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani looks at a French paper on Thursday.
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Tehran: We Will Not Hand Over CCTV Recordings Before Lifting of Sanctions

Photo released by the Iranian embassy in Vienna, where chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani looks at a French paper on Thursday.
Photo released by the Iranian embassy in Vienna, where chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani looks at a French paper on Thursday.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced that it would not hand over to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) camera recordings at the TESA Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop, unless US sanctions were lifted.

In a speech broadcast on Iranian television, the head of the AEOI, Mohammad Eslami, said that the IAEA inspectors could install the cameras at the Karaj nuclear site, west of Tehran, without specifying a time period for this process.

Four IAEA surveillance cameras have gone out of service since June at the TESA site after “sabotage” blamed by Tehran on Israel.

On Thursday, Eslami and IAEA Director Rafael Grossi reached an agreement allowing international inspectors to reinstall the surveillance cameras that Tehran removed from the Karaj facility after the attack in June.

“Following exchanges of views between the AEOI and the IAEA, particularly based on recent talks between the heads of the agencies Mohammad Eslami and Rafael Grossi, it was decided that the IAEA will have the necessary cooperation (with Iran) in precise technical, security and judicial inspections of the Agency’s cameras at the TESA Karaj Complex. This measure is meant to soothe concerns that saboteurs may take advantage of the cameras,” AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said in remarks on Thursday.

In a statement on Wednesday, the IAEA said that it would “make available a sample camera and related technical information to Iran for analysis by its relevant security and judiciary officials, in the presence of the Agency inspectors, on 19 December 2021.”

“The Agency will reinstall cameras to replace those removed from the workshop at Karaj and perform other related technical activities before the end of December 2021 on a date agreed between the Agency and Iran,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the second phase of the Vienna Talks continued for the second week, with the aim of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

IRGC’s Fars news agency quoted an “informed source” as saying that the negotiations were “ongoing despite the slow process.” It added that the US delegation “presented two papers through European mediators, to which the Iranian delegation responded in 12 pages.”

According to the source, the European parties “agreed to negotiate a text including the proposals of the government of Hassan Rouhani, and his successor, Ibrahim Raisi.”

“I think we have made progress in the negotiations,” Russia’s representative, Mikhail Ulyanov, told reporters while leaving the headquarters of the talks at the Coburg Palace Hotel on Thursday, revealing a French proposal paper that is currently under study.

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Kallas: US Remains Biggest Ally and Europe Should be More Self-confident

EU Vice-President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a session on the opening day of the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference, in Doha on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)
EU Vice-President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a session on the opening day of the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference, in Doha on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)
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Kallas: US Remains Biggest Ally and Europe Should be More Self-confident

EU Vice-President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a session on the opening day of the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference, in Doha on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)
EU Vice-President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas speaks during a session on the opening day of the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference, in Doha on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Saturday that the United States remains Europe's biggest ally, after the Trump administration said in a major strategy document that Europe faces "civilizational erasure" and may one day lose its status as a reliable ally.

The new US National Security Strategy, posted on the White House website overnight Thursday-to-Friday, denounced the European Union as anti-democratic and Europe as lacking in self-confidence, and said the goal of the US should be "to help Europe correct its current trajectory".

"There's a lot of criticism, but I think some of it is also true, if you look at Europe, it has been underestimating its own power towards Russia," Kallas said on a panel at the Doha Forum in Qatar, according to Reuters.

"We should be more self-confident," she said, adding that the "US is still our biggest ally".

"I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies and we should stick together," Kallas said.

World

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Media Accuse Rouhani of ‘Serving Israel’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Media Accuse Rouhani of ‘Serving Israel’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa

Media outlets aligned with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have accused former president Hassan Rouhani and his associates of “doing Israel a service,” escalating a political backlash triggered by Rouhani’s recent criticism of Iran’s ability to defend its airspace if last June’s 12-day war with Israel were to resume.

Tasnim, the Guards’ main media arm, protested sharply against Rouhani’s latest speech and the recommendations he offered to prevent a repeat of the conflict.

The media attack coincided with rising political tensions inside Iran as Rouhani’s name resurfaced in the debate over who might succeed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a succession file that has deepened domestic polarization.

Tasnim opened its weekly analytical supplement with the headline “Working for Israel,” placing Rouhani’s photograph on the cover. It accused him of offering “narcissistic, arrogance-filled interpretations” about his claims that he prevented a war on Iran through diplomacy during his past government roles.

The agency questioned whether Rouhani was suggesting that Iran had no deterrent other than his negotiations, and whether the United States and Israel were at full strength at the time while Iran lacked defensive capability.

It further asked why Rouhani’s diplomacy failed to prevent the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement under Donald Trump or avert the assassinations of General Qassem Soleimani and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the senior nuclear official killed in late 2020 in an attack attributed to Israel.

Rouhani last week criticized the country’s tightened security climate, saying Iran needed “an atmosphere of safety, not an atmosphere of securitization.”

He warned that Iran could not remain in a state of “no war and no peace,” citing Khamenei’s own remarks, and urged efforts to rebuild deterrence across multiple fields to confront what he called “the conspiracies of enemies.”

He argued that Iran today lacks “broad regional deterrence,” noting that the airspace of neighboring countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, had fallen under US and Israeli influence, making hostile aerial movement near Iran “safe and free of obstacles.”

Rouhani insisted continuation of the nuclear deal would have prevented the 12-day conflict, calling the nuclear file a pretext for the attacks and blaming subsequent governments for failing to revive the accord.

Tasnim said Rouhani’s positions “practically serve Israel” because they place responsibility on internal actors while removing Israel from the circle of blame. It portrayed his comments as a political act against “sacred unity,” adding that presenting such views “even within a realistic and careful framework” ultimately benefits Israel.

Tasnim also revived long-standing criticism that Rouhani’s government did not sufficiently support Iran’s intervention in Syria in 2013 and 2014, arguing that such reluctance approached “the level of treason.” It claimed one of General Soleimani’s biggest grievances was the administration’s lack of cooperation on the Syrian front.

Responding to Rouhani’s remarks on “securitization,” Tasnim said his own administration had been among the most security-dominated of the Islamic Republic era. The agency pointed to Rouhani’s intelligence background and argued that his current counsel contradicted his record in office.

Rouhani’s comments were also interpreted as an indirect response to Khamenei’s November 27 televised speech, in which the Supreme Leader warned against internal division, repeated his narrative that the US and Israel had “failed” to achieve their war aims and urged Iranians to maintain “national alignment.”

The renewed criticism comes as Rouhani has faced months of attacks from rivals, including parliamentarians, who accuse him of positioning himself to assume the role of Supreme Leader should Khamenei become unable to carry out his duties, including in the event of an Israeli assassination attempt.

Last month, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Rouhani and former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of damaging Iran’s strategic ties with Russia.

Hardline lawmakers revived the chant “Death to Fereydoun,” using Rouhani’s birth family name. One conservative MP said the judiciary should address Rouhani’s “misconduct” so that anyone aspiring to senior posts would “return to his rightful place behind bars.”

After Rouhani’s latest remarks circulated, discussion of his possible leadership prospects reemerged, this time in reformist media.

Reformist theorist Sadegh Zibakalam said Rouhani believes he lacks nothing compared to other succession candidates, including Mojtaba Khamenei, arguing that Rouhani’s executive experience makes him “more qualified than others.”

At the same time, businessman Babak Zanjani, who was sentenced to death for corruption during Rouhani’s presidency but released last year, made a harsh post on X rejecting any future political role for Rouhani.

Iran, he wrote, needed a “young, educated and effective” force, “not holders of fake degrees,” warning that “we will cleanse Iran of incompetence.”

World

Iran Holds Massive Drills in Gulf

A handout photo made available on 05 December 2025 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shows a missile being launched during a military drill in the waters off southern Iran coast. EPA/IRGC HANDOUT
A handout photo made available on 05 December 2025 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shows a missile being launched during a military drill in the waters off southern Iran coast. EPA/IRGC HANDOUT
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Iran Holds Massive Drills in Gulf

A handout photo made available on 05 December 2025 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shows a missile being launched during a military drill in the waters off southern Iran coast. EPA/IRGC HANDOUT
A handout photo made available on 05 December 2025 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shows a missile being launched during a military drill in the waters off southern Iran coast. EPA/IRGC HANDOUT

Iran launched massive missiles in the Sea of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz during the second day of a naval drill, state TV reported Friday.

The report said the Revolutionary Guard launched the missiles from the depth of Iran's mainland, hitting targets in the Oman Sea and neighboring area near Strait of Hormuz in a drill that began on Thursday.

It identified the missiles as cruise Qadr-110, Qadr-380 and Ghadir that have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers. It said the Guard also launched a ballistic missile identified as 303, without elaborating.

The drill is the second one following the Israel-Iran war in June that killed nearly 1,100 people in Iran, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Missile attacks by Iran killed 28 in Israel.

Earlier, Iran hosted an anti-terrorism drill in its northwestern province of East Azerbaijan with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which, according to state Press TV, was intended to signal both “peace and friendship” to neighboring states and warn enemies that “any miscalculation would meet a decisive response.”

The SCO, a Eurasian security and economic bloc founded in 2001 to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, often conducts joint military exercises among its members.

The organization includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and several Central Asian countries, with observer and dialogue partners such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and others participating in selected operations.