There Is Sabotage, Iran Restricts IAEA Access To Uranium Enrichment Facilities

JAKARTA - Iran has restricted access to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to its main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, citing security concerns following what Israel called a sabotage attack on the site in April.

"Due to an accident or sabotage in April, certain access has been restricted for safety and security reasons," said a Vienna-based diplomat, adding that the move had very little impact on the agency's ability to verify.

The impasse, which one official said had lasted for weeks, was in the process of being resolved, diplomats said.

But it has also raised tensions with the West as have indirect talks between Iran and the United States about reviving the Iran nuclear deal, which have been postponed with no date set for its resumption.

It follows Iran's various moves in violation of the 2015 Nuclear Deal, angering Washington and its allies, ranging from uranium enrichment to near weapons-grade levels, to failure to explain the origin of uranium particles found by the US nuclear watchdog at several unannounced sites.

"They provoked us," said a Western diplomat following the IAEA, adding that inspectors should be able to have full access next week.

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment, while the IAEA declined to comment, citing its general policy of not commenting on inspection matters.

Apart from the security and safety concerns cited as reasons for Iran to "subtly" limit the visits of the IAEA inspection team, Tehran has been involved in disputes over inspection access with the UN agency previously.

Iran in 2020 denied the IAEA access to two sites for surprise inspections. In 2019, Iran detained IAEA inspectors and confiscated his travel documents.

The IAEA has so far stopped short of reporting the matter to its member states, holding emergency meetings of the 35-nation Board of Governors as happened in November 2019, when Iran briefly detained IAEA inspectors who diplomats said had sought access to Natanz.

The IAEA and Iran have discussed this issue to avoid these restrictions becoming permanent and eroding verification capabilities.

Earlier, an explosion and power outage in April at Natanz, the heart of Iran's uranium enrichment program, was said to have damaged centrifuges at the underground commercial-scale Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP). The IAEA's last quarterly report on Iran in May showed its enrichment output had slowed.