The United States would not expect a special meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog's board this year if the agency's deal with Iran on replacing its surveillance cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop is carried out, a US official said on Wednesday.
"If implemented as agreed with the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Director General, we would not foresee needing a special Board of Governors (meeting) on this set of issues before the end of the year," said the official on condition of anonymity.
"Of course, if there are any new nuclear escalations, we would react accordingly,” Reuters quoted the official as saying.
Iran and the IAEA have earlier announced reaching an agreement on replacing surveillance cameras at the workshop in the TESA Karaj complex that had been removed after an apparent attack, removing one potential obstacle to wider nuclear talks.
One of the IAEA's four cameras at the workshop was destroyed in June in apparent sabotage that Iran blamed on Israel.
Iran then removed the cameras and did not let the IAEA return to replace them, angering the US and its allies.
Iran said Wednesday that it “voluntarily” agreed to grant access to the nuclear watchdog in an effort to prevent misunderstandings, according to a report by Nournews, an outlet close to Iran’s security forces.
The IAEA will soon install new surveillance cameras at Iran’s Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop under an agreement reached by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, the Vienna-based watchdog stated.
On November 23, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Tehran and said he wanted to deepen cooperation with Iran, days before the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.
“I sincerely hope that we can continue our constructive discussions to address and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues in Iran,” Grossi said in a statement.
