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Tehran Rejects Cooperation with IAEA Beyond Scope of Safeguards Agreement

A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
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Tehran Rejects Cooperation with IAEA Beyond Scope of Safeguards Agreement

A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 
A picture distributed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran of the sixth-generation centrifuges at an exhibition of the nuclear industry last week 

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami said that his country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) falls under the IAEA safeguards.

Eslami dismissed comments that as many as 100 new cameras have been set up at a nuclear power plant in Isfahan.

“The AEOI will act based on the Strategic Action Plan,” he said.

The Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions was approved by the Iranian parliament in December 2020. It required the Iranian administration to restrict the IAEA inspections.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last week that the country's nuclear authorities should continue working with the UN nuclear watchdog "under the framework of safeguards."

Khamenei called on Iranian authorities not to yield to the IAEA's "excessive and false demands".

"There is nothing wrong with the agreement (with the West), but the infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched," Khamenei said, according to state media.

"This is a good law ... which must be respected and not violated in providing access and information (to the IAEA)," added Khamenei

Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran's fast-advancing nuclear work, free some US and European detainees held in Iran, and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.

Both sides are discussing more Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, Reuters quoted a Western official as saying, and could include Iran committing to pause enriching uranium by 60%.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani said in a tweet on Wednesday that he "had a serious and constructive" meeting with European Union foreign policy official Enrique Mora in Doha.

"We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting,” he added.

For his part, Mora tweeted saying: “Intense talks yesterday and today with Vice Minister Bagheri Kani in Doha on a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA.”

Kani said last week that he had met diplomats from the European Troika in the UAE to discuss "a range of issues and mutual concerns".

EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was "keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran".

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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.

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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."