![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/IAEA20216-03.jpg\" "\\"IAEA20216-03\\"")
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By: Alejo Vidal-Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the weekend, the head of the UN\u2019s nuclear monitoring agency reminded the international community of the fact that the inspections regime at an Iranian nuclear facility in Karaj was still not \u201cintact.\u201d This was surely an understatement given that the inspections regime was effectively dismantled all across Iran in February. Rafael Grossi\u2019s comments singling out the Karaj facility<\/a> reflected the fact that there is a persistent gap in data collection there, even in the wake of an agreement that the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency struck with Iranian authorities to allow routine maintenance on monitoring equipment at various nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n However, it bears mentioning that that agreement was not announced until two weeks after the deadline for such maintenance, meaning that the hard drives connected to surveillance cameras and other devices had likely been full for that period of time, leaving a broad gap in knowledge which may never be filled. Meanwhile, the IAEA is forced to merely take it on faith that Iran will honor an agreement to fill in the surrounding gaps, which now stretch back more than eight months. Last year, the Iranian parliament passed a law<\/a> mandating that international inspectors be kicked out of the country if US sanctions remained in place past February. Grossi\u2019s efforts prevented the most extreme outcome but did not prevent the IAEA from having both direct and remote access to nuclear sites cut off.<\/p>\n It was widely reported at the time that the agency would no longer be able to monitor the goings-on at those sites through surveillance footage. What was not widely understood until much later is that inspectors were left almost entirely in the dark and were forced to rely on educated guesses in the preparation of their most recent quarterly reports on Iran\u2019s nuclear activities and the status of the 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. This month, the new head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran mocked that situation by alleging that Iran had accumulated more than 120 kg of uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, whereas the IAEA\u2019s estimate in September had been less than 90 kg.<\/p>\n IRAN: \u201cArak Reactor Gave Us 9 KG of Plutonium Annually, Enough for a Nuclear Bomb\u201d #Iran<\/a> #IAEA<\/a> #JCPOA<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/7sjwz45fAj<\/a><\/p>\n — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n