“The agreement has expired... any of the information recorded will never be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the data and images will remain in the possession of Iran,” said Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Parliament.
The announcement could further complicate talks between Iran and six world powers on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. Three years ago, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran; Iran reacted by violating many of the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear program.
The Foreign Ministry slammed the refusal to hand over photos from nuclear sites, saying that “the Iranian regime reveals once again its malign intentions as well as its ways of lies and deceit, by withholding any effective monitoring of its nuclear program.”
“The IAEA director-general’s report, published on Friday June 25, provides clear evidence that the Iranian Ayatollahs continue pursuing military nuclear capabilities,” the Foreign Ministry stated. “We call upon the international community to act swiftly and decisively by all means, to hold Iran accountable to its sinister actions.”
A spokesman for Iran’s parliament’s National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee warned that “Iran will also turn off the IAEA cameras if the United States fails to remove all sanctions,” the state-run Tehran Times newspaper’s website reported.
The IAEA and Tehran struck the three-month monitoring agreement in February to cushion the blow of Iran reducing its cooperation with the agency, and it allowed monitoring of some activities that would otherwise have been axed to continue.Under that agreement, which on May 24 was extended by a month, data continues to be collected in a black-box-type arrangement, with the IAEA only able to access it at a later date.
On Friday, the IAEA demanded an immediate reply from Iran on whether it would extend the monitoring agreement, prompting an Iranian envoy to respond that Tehran was under no obligation to provide an answer.
Iran said on Wednesday the country’s Supreme National Security Council would decide whether to renew the monitoring agreement only after it expires.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that any failure by Tehran to extend the monitoring agreement would be a “serious concern” for broader negotiations.
Parties involved in the talks on reviving the deal, which began in April in Vienna, have said there are major issues still to be resolved before the nuclear deal can be reinstated.
Iran has drones with a range of 7,000 km., Iranian state media cited the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards as saying on Sunday, a development which may be seen by Washington as a threat to regional stability.
Tehran’s assertion comes as Iran, the US and other world powers concluded a sixth round of negotiations in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal that former US president Donald Trump exited three years ago before reimposing sanctions.