No IAEA Access to Iran Nuclear Sites beyond Safeguards Agreement: Spokesman

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Monday, Saeed Khatibzadeh said the agreement that Iran and the IAEA signed in February does not allow the UN nuclear watchdog to have access to the Iranian sites beyond the Safeguards Agreement.

On the possible extension of the three-month agreement, the spokesman said Iran's Supreme National Security Council has discussed the issue and is finalizing the case.

Once finalized, the result will be announced by the secretariat of the SNSC or the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, he added.

Khatibzadeh explained that according the technical agreement, Iran has been recording data at its nuclear sites within the framework of the Additional Protocol without the IAEA inspectors being allowed to visit those locations.

The UN nuclear watchdog’s director general visited Tehran on February 23 to discuss how to work with Iran in light of its plan to halt the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

According to a three-month technical agreement with the IAEA, Iran has been recording information offline at its nuclear sites, but had warned that a lack of breakthrough in the Vienna negotiations on reviving the JCPOA would mean that the UN nuclear agency will have no access to the information, the cameras will be turned off, and the data will be deleted.

A new round of talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action began in Vienna on April 6 between Iran and the remaining members of the nuclear deal, namely the UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany.

The US left the JCPOA in 2018 and restored the economic sanctions that the accord had lifted. Tehran retaliated with remedial nuclear measures that it is entitled to take under the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36.

The current negotiations examine the potential of revitalization of the nuclear deal and the US’ likely return to it.