Iran: Still No Decision on Extension of IAEA Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran has not yet made any decision about the extension of a temporary technical agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency or about whether to delete the recordings of its nuclear sites, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Speaking at a weekly presser, Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran has not still made any decision about the extension of the three-month technical agreement with the IAEA signed in February or about how to continue cooperation with the UN nuclear agency.
Asked by reporters if a date has been set for the deletion of the information that Iran has recorded at its nuclear sites under the technical agreement with the IAEA, the spokesman said no decision has been made so far about the cameras.
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.
Elsewhere in the press conference, Khatibzadeh pointed to the Vienna talks on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saying Iran has already made its decisions and now it is the other side’s turn to make up its mind.
In answer to a question that if a representative of Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raeisi will attend the next round of the JCPOA talks or if an agreement would be reached under the next Iranian administration, Khatibzadeh said, “Basically it is not important under which administration and in what period the agreement is achieved. Even if the deal would be possible right now, we won’t delay the job for a single hour.”
The latest round of talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action has begun 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.