IAEA Affirms Reinstalling Surveillance Cameras in Iran

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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IAEA Affirms Reinstalling Surveillance Cameras in Iran

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed the reinstallation of surveillance cameras in Iran, as part of the recent deal between the IAEA director-general and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

IAEA's spokesman Fredrik Dahl told the German news agency (dpa) that work was “underway” to reinstall surveillance cameras at several sites.

Yet, he didn’t point to the number of surveillance cameras or the sites where they will be reinstalled.

The Washington-based Arms Control Agency reported that IAEA began reinstalling cameras at certain nuclear facilities which approach the nuclear threshold.

In early March, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi reached an agreement with Iranian officials to restart surveillance cameras at several nuclear sites and increase inspections at the Fordow facility.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that two delegations from the IAEA have visited Tehran following the recent deal, adding that “cooperation with them continues step by step”.

Last June, Iran called on the IAEA to dismantle the cameras at its nuclear sites due to tension regarding the nuclear deal.

Iran wishes to leave a good impression by allowing the reinstallation of the cameras before the IAEA Board of Governors' meeting in June.

The cameras don’t grant the IAEA a better view of the nuclear facilities.

Although there is footage from the time before the removal of the cameras, the international inspectors failed to access the data since Tehran abandoned the protocol of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in February 2021.

Tehran said it would turn over the data collected from the cameras to the IAEA if the 2015 nuclear deal was restored.



Taiwan Says China Tested Two Missiles During War Games

A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Taiwan Says China Tested Two Missiles During War Games

A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)

China test-fired two missiles during a day of military drills around Taiwan, a Taiwanese security official said, adding they were directed inland and not at the self-ruled island.
Beijing deployed a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on Monday, in the fourth round of large-scale drills in just over two years, reported AFP.
During the exercises, which lasted 13 hours, China test-fired two missiles "into the interior", the national security official told a briefing Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.
While the exercises were a "serious" threat, they did not mean that war was "imminent" or "inevitable", the official said.
Though "their ability to switch from exercises to war has been gradually strengthening, we still believe that war is not imminent and it is not inevitable", the official said.
After then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022, China unleashed massive military exercises that included sending missiles into the skies around Taiwan.
China's ruling Communist Party has never controlled Taiwan, but it claims the island as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to take it.
Beijing has ramped up military pressure on the democratic island in recent years as it seeks to browbeat Taipei into accepting its claims of sovereignty.
China held war games three days after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in May, who Beijing calls a "separatist."
It held another round of drills on Monday after Lai vowed in his National Day speech last Thursday to "resist annexation" and insisted that China and Taiwan were not "not subordinate to each other".
The security official said an "important part" of China's drills on Monday was a blockade exercise against Taiwan.
"We can imagine how serious the threat was to Taiwan that day and how much pressure it put on Taiwan's military," the official said.
"If China actually blockades the Taiwan Strait or Taiwan's major ports, it would cause chaos in the international trade order."