IRAN AGREES TO REPLACE CAMERAS AT NUCLEAR FACILITY

Faced with a potential vote of censure by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog agency of the United Nations, Iran agreed Wednesday to replace surveillance cameras at a key site that manufactures centrifuges.

But Iran continues to block U.N. inspectors from viewing the video those cameras produce and from replacing the full memory cards in cameras at other sites.

Iran’s refusal to grant inspectors full access has further complicated talks in Vienna aimed at trying to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, leaving the negotiators without a clear and complete assessment of Iran’s nuclear program. European negotiators said this week that the talks were stalled and that time was running out.

The agreement with the agency, after a three-month standoff, will allow inspectors to replace cameras at Karaj, which manufactures parts for advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium. Karaj was damaged by an Israeli sabotage attack in June.

The director general of the agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the agreement “will enable us to resume necessary continuity of knowledge at this facility” while discussions continue with Iran’s new hard-line government about the numerous other unresolved questions about Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran insists is not aimed at producing a nuclear weapon.

The agency’s ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities is a parallel but vital aspect to the negotiations in Vienna to restore the 2015 agreement. The deal put sharp limits on Iran’s ability to use centrifuges and to enrich uranium above modest levels in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

In 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. President Joe Biden is trying to rejoin it by promising to again lift punishing economic sanctions against Iran in return for Tehran’s returning to the limits in the deal.

Those talks are not going well, with the three main negotiators, from France, Germany and Britain, issuing a joint statement Monday warning that “without swift progress, in light of Iran’s fast-forwarding of its nuclear program, the JCPOA will very soon become an empty shell.’’

Iran returned to the talks last month after a nearly six-month break but with new demands that would negate most of the provisions that had already been tentatively agreed upon by the previous government.