VIENNA (CU)_Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will scale back cooperation with the nuclear watchdog within a week, the agency announced on Tuesday (Feb 16).
The Middle Eastern nation plans to halt nuclear inspections outside of its declared sites as of February 23, thereby suspending the implementation of “voluntary transparency measures under the JCPOA… including the Additional Protocol”, the IAEA said in a statement.
The Additional Protocol of the JCPOA, permits the watchdog’s inspectors to visit undeclared sites in Iran on short notice. However, on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran threatened to suspend the implementation of this Protocol, if there was no breakthrough in the nuclear dispute with the United States by the end of the month.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – better known as the 2015 nuclear deal – was signed by Iran and six other nations, after two years of intensive negotiations orchestrated by the Obama administration. Under the Agreement, Tehran agreed to reduce the number of centrifuges in the country by two-thirds, as well as to slash its stockpile of enriched uranium, and to cap the ongoing enrichment at 3.67%, an amount which is sufficient for energy provision but not enough to build a nuclear bomb.
In return, the six other nations party to the deal agreed to lift all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, which reconnected the country’s economy with international markets.
However, in 2018, former US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement and reimposed harsh sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. One year later, Tehran gradually scaled back its commitments under the deal.
For instance, in January this year, Iran announced that it had resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, which puts the country just a step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Meanwhile, Washington has expressed the intention of the United States to re-enter the nuclear deal, although Tehran insists that the US must completely lift sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, in order to do so.
Although US President Joe Biden, during his presidential campaign, said he hoped to return to the deal and bring Tehran back into compliance, however, since coming into power, the Biden administration claims that the US will not engage with Iranian negotiators until Tehran returns to full compliance.
