TEHRAN (FNA)- Senior members of the Iranian team of negotiators said they had turned down a request by the six world powers in the recent talks in Geneva for the installation of online cameras at Iran's Natanz and Fordo nuclear enrichment facilities.


“The demand was not accepted by Iran and the accesses are in the form of offline mode,” Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said in Tehran on Sunday.

His remarks came after the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) asked Tehran to concede to the installation of the cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at its Fordo facility near the Central city of Qom, where Iran enriches 20-percent-grade uranium, and Natanz enrichment site near the Central city of Natanz, where Iran produces 3.5-5 percent enriched nuclear fuel for its power plants.

Installing online cameras at nuclear facilities to send back real-time images to the UN nuclear watchdog agency is an undertaking beyond those of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Safeguard Agreement rules and regulations.

Fordo enrichment facility hosts Iran's uranium enrichment to the purity level of 20% which is needed for fueling a research reactor in Tehran which produces radioisotopes for medical purposes.

The western media claimed recently that Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani is willing to shut down its nuclear facility if the West agrees to lift Islamic republic's sanctions.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi strongly rejected western media reports claiming that Tehran has raised a proposal to the West to close its Fordo facility for lifting sanctions against the country.

"The closure of Fordo site is a sheer lie," Salehi told reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting in Tehran in October.]

By Fars News Agency

 

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