Iran Denies IAEA Access to Images as Inspection Agreement Expires

Images were part of 'Additional Protocol' Iran voluntarily complied with

Fears about a 3-month deal for access between the IAEA and Iran were realized over the weekend, when starting Saturday Iran has refused to give inspectors access to surveillance photos from the nuclear sites.

Iran is allowed to do this, because the images were part of the Additional Protocol, which Iran had voluntarily complied with before. Iran’s parliament wanted them to stop a lot of the extra compliance, and Iran worked out a 3-month pact with the IAEA on the matter.

The problem was that was 3 months ago, and expired Friday, despite talks aiming to extend them. The IAEA confirms that it has tamper-proof seals on everything, but didn’t immediately comment on the images.

There were calls from an MP to delete some of the images, since the IAEA doesn’t have rights to them without this deal. This is unconfirmed, and it’s not obvious what benefit it would have for anyone, as any space where information is lacking is going to produce more idle speculation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.