Iran has decided not to extend the agreement to monitor Iran's nuclear activities concluded between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) three months ago, the president said on Sunday (May 23). of the Iranian Parliament, quoted by the Fars news agency.

"Since May 22 and with the end of the three-month agreement, the agency will have no access to data collected by cameras inside nuclear facilities," said Mohamed Baqer Qalibaf.

The IAEA said Thursday to continue negotiations with Iran to extend the agreement by three months, which expired on Friday.

The director general of the international agency, Rafael Grossi, is due to hold a press conference early Sunday afternoon in Vienna.

This agreement, reached on February 21 after Tehran's decision to end unannounced inspections by agency experts, allowed the IAEA to continue for three months to collect data on Iran's nuclear activities, without having immediate access to it.

Mohamed Baqer Qalibaf did not specify whether the images from the surveillance cameras would now be destroyed.

At the same time, discussions are continuing between Iran, Great Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia in an attempt to put the 2015 Vienna Agreement back on track (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action , PAGC), which provides for oversight of Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

The Vienna agreement in jeopardy

The United States withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Donald Trump and reinstated sanctions against Iran.

Since May 2019, the Islamic Republic has gradually freed itself from the agreement concluded with, in addition to the United States, the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council - including France - and Germany.

A law passed last year by the Iranian parliament forced the government to end, on February 21, unannounced inspections by the IAEA under the Additional Protocol to the JCPOA.

According to Mohamed Baqer Qalibaf, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, supported the decision not to extend the agreement with the UN agency.

"This was debated yesterday and the decision was taken. The law passed by Parliament will be applied. The Supreme Leader has stressed the importance of this issue," said the speaker of the Iranian Parliament.

With Reuters

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