Tehran (AFP)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director general is in Tehran, announced that it had reached an agreement with Iran on Sunday concerning the monitoring of the Iranian nuclear program, a few days after denouncing a lack of cooperation on this subject.

Coming especially to the Iranian capital to try to defuse tensions, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi met the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami.

In a joint statement, the two men announced that "the IAEA inspectors have the authorization to intervene to maintain the equipment and replace the hard disks" of the cameras installed by the UN nuclear gendarme in Iranian installations.

Visiting Iran for the second time this year, Mr. Grossi ensures with this new compromise a continuity in the monitoring of the Iranian nuclear program and offers a reprieve to the great powers who are trying to resuscitate the international nuclear agreement Iranian of 2015.

- Impeded surveillance -

Iran in February restricted the access of IAEA inspectors to some of its nuclear facilities and refuses to provide real-time recordings of cameras and other surveillance tools that the UN agency has installed there.

A compromise had been negotiated to ensure some degree of oversight, but it expired in June, and the IAEA was concerned about losing data if the tools' recording capacity was saturated.

Photo provided by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on September 12, 2021, of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi (c) upon his arrival in Tehran - Atomic Energy Organization of Iran / AFP

"Since February 2021, verification and surveillance activities have been seriously hampered by Iran's decision" to restrict inspections, the IAEA denounced Tuesday in a report consulted by AFP.

Under the new agreement, the IAEA will still not have access to the data from the cameras, but Iran pledged in February to provide it to it eventually, if talks to save the Vienna accord are successful. .

Quoted by the official Irna agency, Mr. Eslami welcomed "the good and constructive negotiations with Mr. Grossi".

"It was decided that the Agency's experts would come to Iran to replace the memory cards of the technical surveillance cameras," he said.

"They remain under seal in Iran and new cards will be installed."

- "Transparency" -

Mr. Grossi will return to Tehran "in the near future for high-level consultations," said the joint statement, which insisted on "the mutual cooperation and trust of the two parties".

His visit also comes before a meeting from Monday of the Board of Governors of the Agency, which Iran has "decided to attend" to "continue our discussions," said Eslami.

The issue of IAEA surveillance cameras is part of the larger framework of talks to try to save the international Iran nuclear deal, torpedoed in 2018 by the decision of former US President Donald Trump to s '' withdraw and reinstate US sanctions.

In response, Iran has freed itself from most of its obligations.

Nuclear facilities in Iran AFP

The agreement offers Tehran an easing of Western and UN sanctions in exchange for its commitment never to acquire atomic weapons and a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, placed under strict UN control.

The negotiations started in April to try to resuscitate the agreement by reintegrating Washington have been suspended since June 20, two days after the Iranian presidential victory of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi.

After the publication of the IAEA report, Mr. Raïssi assured Wednesday that his country was demonstrating "transparency".

"Of course, in the event of an unconstructive approach from the IAEA, it is unreasonable to expect a constructive response from Iran," he said, however.

For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned after the report was published that the United States was "close" to abandoning its efforts to revive the agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, opposed to the deal, accused Iran on Friday of continuing to "lie to the world".

"Israel regards with extreme gravity the image reflected in the report (of the IAEA, Editor's note), which proves that Iran continues to lie to the world and to promote a nuclear weapons development program, in contravention of its international obligations, ”he said.

© 2021 AFP