Iran told the group it would stop implementing ‘voluntary transparency measures’ under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it plans to suspend nuclear snap investigations outside its designated site on February 23, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.
Iran told the IAEA that it will “stop implementing voluntary transparency measures under the JCPOA on 23 February, including the Additional Protocol”, the IAEA said in a statement on Tuesday.
The additional Protocol of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Integrated Action Plan (JCPOA), allows watchdog inspectors to visit sites or -published in Iran on short notice.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry had threatened to take such a move if there was no breach of the nuclear dispute with the United States – the lifting of U.S. sanctions – before the end of the month.
In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal and imposed harsh sanctions on Iran.
One year later, Iran gradually suspended its commitments under the agreement.
The Gulf country has increased uranium enrichment levels to 20 percent and said it expected further breaches of its promises under December legislation ratified by parliament.
The bill was passed following the murder of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran in late November.
‘Sanctions must be lifted’
Earlier this month, Iranian Director General Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that if the US wanted Iran to return to its JCPOA commitments, “the US must lift sanctions completely…. “and not just in speech, on paper”.
U.S. President Joe Biden wants his country to go back to the 2015 agreement, but he wants Iran to take confidence-building steps first.
During his main campaign, Biden had stated that he hoped to return to Iran’s nuclear deal and bring Tehran back into concession.
However, since coming to power, the Biden administration has taken a tougher line, saying that U.S. negotiators would not communicate with their counterparts in Iran until Tehran returns to full compliance.