Iran to announce decision on IAEA agreement

In his weekly press conference held online, Khatibzadeh briefed reporters on Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s meetings and travels in the past week, highlighting Zarif’s attendance in the urgent meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers in which he uttered Iran’s stance on the latest developments in Palestine and the necessity to recognize the crimes committed by the Israeli regime as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He also gave a summary of Zarif’s trip to Italy, the Vatican, and Ireland, as well as his telephone call with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

On the agreement with the IAEA which expired on Saturday, Khatibzadeh said that the issue was being discussed in Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the result would be announced by either the council or the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Underlining that the accord denies the IAEA access beyond safeguards agreements, the spokesman further explained that Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog agreed that cameras continue recording, but the agency wouldn’t have access to the recordings.

The restriction would be in place and Iran’s final decision whether to extend the agreement would be announced, according to Khatibzadeh.

Iran’s Parliament set a deadline for the administration in recent legislation to deny the IAEA any access to nuclear sites beyond safeguards agreements and halt implementation of Additional Protocol in case the US refused to remove sanctions.

The deadline expired on Saturday, while US sanctions are still in place despite improvements made in the talks to revive the nuclear deal, based on which the US must remove all sanctions against Iran.

Regarding the contradictory remarks by Iranian and Western officials on the fate of Vienna talks, Khatibzadeh underscored that there was no contradiction, as there has been considerable improvement and an agreement was at hand.

If Washington makes its political decision and distances itself from the previous administration’s behavior and the maximum pressure campaign, Khatibzadeh said, the remaining differences would be easily solved.

Iran insists that the US, as the one that ceased participation to the deal causing current difficulties, must verifiably remove all sanctions before Iran reverses its compliance reduction measures which were taken to reciprocate US withdrawal from the deal.

Referring to the fact, the spokesman underscored that the opportunity window that Iran has offered by keeping the JCPOA alive wouldn’t be open forever.

Asked if sanctions are waived in 120- and 180-day periods and if that means periodical negotiations to secure waivers, the diplomat said that the periodical waivers were related to the US Congress and there would be no renegotiation for the JCPOA.

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