Iran tells IAEA to remove cameras
(CNN) -- Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove its surveillance cameras and other equipment from its nuclear sites by mid-February, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has said.
The declarations were made in a letter from E. Khalilipour, vice president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to a communique issued by the IAEA to its members, a copy of which was received by CNN.
The letter comes two days after the IAEA's board of governors reported Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear program, opening the door to potential sanctions against Tehran.
Iran had warned it would stop honoring the "additional protocol" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gave the IAEA -- the U.N. nuclear watchdog -- greater oversight, if it was referred to the Security Council.
The additional protocol allows for such things as snap inspections, IAEA seals on nuclear equipment and greater surveillance of Tehran's nuclear facilities.
The letter, in essence, told the IAEA it would stop cooperating with the additional protocol and would return to the bare minimum of cooperation as outlined by the NPT.
"From the date of this letter, all voluntarily suspended non-legally binding measures including the provisions of the additional protocol and even beyond that will be suspended," the Iranian letter said, according to the IAEA communique.
Because of that, the letter requested that the IAEA inspector's presence in Iran for verification activities must be scheduled and not unannounced, the communique said.
And "all the agency's containment and surveillance measures which were in place beyond the normal agency safeguards measures should be removed by mid-February 2006."
That means IAEA seals and cameras should be removed from enrichment-related facilities, where they were installed after the Paris Agreement reached between Iran and the EU-3 -- France, Germany and Britain. Under that agreement, the IAEA was asked to supervise and monitor Iran's voluntary suspension of enrichment-related activities.
Tehran had also warned it would resume uranium-enrichment activities if referred to the Security Council.
The council, meanwhile, will not consider any action until IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei presents his report in March.
And some U.N. member states, such as China, continue to urge diplomacy as a solution.
"Even with the adoption of this IAEA resolution, it is the belief of most of the members there that a diplomatic solution is the way out within the framework of the IAEA," said Wang Guangya, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, on Monday.
Others used stronger language. French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said he hoped Iran would understand that a return to voluntary suspension of nuclear activities would be in its best interest.
The IAEA wants the Islamic state to take action to prove its nuclear intentions are peaceful, as the Islamic state insists is the case.
In addition, talks are scheduled for February 16 in Moscow between officials of Russia and Iran on a Russian proposal, which has gained international support, to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian soil.
But Iran said its voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment and its agreement to unannounced inspections of its nuclear facilities should have sufficed to secure international trust that its intentions were peaceful.
The United States and other Western countries have expressed concern that Iran's nuclear activities could be aimed at acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. State Department's top official on nuclear issues says Iran used negotiations with the European Union to play for time to further its nuclear ambitions and now has the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon and a delivery system.
"I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the delivery means for those weapons," Undersecretary Robert Joseph told reporters on Monday. (Full story)
Symbol of the IAEA
Flag of Iran
Shortly after ending its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the government of Iran has now ordered the IAEA to discontinue some of its surveillance of Iran's  nuclear facilities. Tehran has also asked the agency to remove any and all signage from their nuclear sites by the end of next week.

This is in response to the Saturday resolution by the IAEA to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council, which was made without waiting for the director of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, chairman of the IAEA, to finish preparing a report on  (and ) nuclear programs for the regular IAEA meeting scheduled for March 6. ElBaradei had given Iran until March to answer IAEA questions. By a vote of 27 to three (with five abstentions), and without the information in ElBaradei's report planned for March 2006, the IAEA recommended that the matter of the Iranian nuclear program be brought before the Security Council.

The recommendation claims that there are serious concerns about Iranian nuclear aims, and the agency does not have confidence that the program is intended solely for civilian or other non-military use. Although the meeting was taken without waiting for ElBaradei's March report, the recommendation requests ElBaradei to make his report anyway, including a list of "steps Iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions" by March 6.

The IAEA's resolution calls for Iran to reinstate a freeze on its nuclear programs, consider ending construction of a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor, and to continue allowing the IAEA's purposes and actions in Iran. However, the council will not implement any further action until ElBaradei makes his full report on March 6.

ElBaradei also reported to the IAEA Monday that Iran would also demand a reduction in the amount of facilities inspections from the agency, and that they would discontinue their agreement to the Additional Protocol of the  (NPT) if the agency reported Iran to the Security Council. This protocol entitles the IAEA to hold unannounced inspections of facilities, increased surveillance capability, and placing IAEA seals on nuclear equipment.

Other diplomatic ventures are being planned. On February 16, Iranian officials will meet with the Russian government in Moscow to discuss the possibility of Russia enriching uranium for export to Iran in exchange for a halting of its nuclear enrichment program. And Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the UN, said Monday that "Even with the adoption of this IAEA resolution, it is the belief of most of the members there that a diplomatic solution is the way out within the framework of the IAEA."