Iran to remove 27 nuclear surveillance cameras: IAEA

Iran is removing 27 surveillance cameras at nuclear facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi said Thursday, calling it a "serious challenge" to the agency's work in the country.

"What we have been informed is that 27 cameras... are being removed in Iran," he told reporters.

"So this of course poses a serious challenge to our ability to continue working there."

Iran's move is apparent further retaliation for the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors' resolution criticising Iran for failing to explain uranium particles at undeclared sites, which was passed on Wednesday evening. Grossi is due to hold a news conference on Iran at 1115 GMT.

The motion -- the first to criticise Iran since June 2020 -- was approved by 30 members of the IAEA board of governors, with only Russia and China voting against it.

The resolution came after the Vienna-based IAEA raised concerns about traces of enriched uranium previously found at three sites Tehran had not declared as having hosted nuclear activities.

"The adoption of the resolution, which is based on the hasty and unbalanced report of the director general of the IAEA and on false and fabricated information from the Zionist regime (Israel), will only weaken the process of cooperation and interaction between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the agency," the foreign ministry statement said.