The already tangled Iranian nuclear affair is becoming more and more complicated: after months of stalemate in the difficult negotiations that try to bring Tehran back to the 2015 agreements, canceled by the Trump administration, Iran has disconnected 27 surveillance cameras in nuclear plants.
And the International Atomic Agency (Aiea), which in the last few hours had already pushed forward criticizing Tehran for its lack of cooperation, has branded the latest move by the Islamic Republic as a potential lethal blow to the achievement of a new understanding.
This decision "naturally poses a serious challenge to our ability to work" on the spot, said IAEA director general Rafael Grossi.
Tehran refers to the sender: "Iran has so far had extensive cooperation with the IAEA, but the agency has not only been ungrateful, but has considered Iran's goodwill as a duty", the organization said. for Iranian atomic energy by announcing the shutdown of the cameras and yet specifying that "over 80 of the other IAEA cameras will continue to function".
But it is the Western critical statement, the first official tear since 2020, that has sent Iranians into a rage: Iran will respond in a "decisive and proportionate" way to the resolution adopted yesterday, branded as "political and not constructive", has the foreign ministry warned.
Followed by President Ebrahim Raisi who made it known that the Islamic Republic "will not take the slightest step back" with respect to the calls made by the Agency.
The document, approved by the entire AIEA board - except Russia and China who voted against - criticizes Tehran above all for not adequately explaining the presence of traces of enriched uranium in three sites where it had not declared enrichment activities.
"The IAEA focuses on issues based on false and unfounded information provided by the Zionist regime", thundered Tehran speaking of "fabricated documents".
And after Grossi's visit to Israel, the arrows went straight to the IAEA chief: "No one can claim to be impartial while he is silent on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program and in the meantime speaks out against Iran's peaceful nuclear activities."
Beyond the cloud of controversy, the widespread fear is that if the Iranian nuclear program proceeds smoothly, Iran will have sufficient material to produce a bomb, a threat that would risk setting the region even more ablaze, whatever the intentions. Iranian.
Israel hailed the IAEA resolution as "significant" because it "reveals the true face of Iran".
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stressed that the decision confirms that Tehran "does not cooperate with the Agency or fulfill its directives and prevents it from carrying out its important function and from taking action against military nuclear activity".
The move by the IAEA, concluded Bennett, "is a clear warning signal to Iran: if it continues its activities, the leading countries must take the dossier to the UN Security Council".
The Jewish state has already warned that it reserves the "right to self-defense and action towards Iran to block its nuclear program if the international community fails".
The United States tries to throw water on the fire: "We ask Iran to choose diplomacy and de-escalation", exhorted the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, convinced that the only result of the road taken by Iran is that of a "further economic and political isolation" of Tehran.