Iran Threatens to Take "Final" Decision against International Atomic Energy Agency

An Iranian document revealed that Tehran threatened to end an agreement it concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) that temporarily maintains most of the agency's monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities if the agency's board adopts a US-led effort to criticize Tehran next week.

Tehran this week reduced its cooperation with the United Nations agency, and ended additional inspection procedures that were applied under the nuclear deal it concluded with world powers in 2015, in the latest step to respond to the re-imposition of US sanctions on it after Washington withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

In its document sent to the remaining members of the IAEA   ahead of next week's quarterly meeting of the agency's board of governors, the United States said it wanted a draft resolution that "expresses the board's deep concern regarding Iran's cooperation with the agency," according to Reuters.

The American document, seen by Reuters, stated that the board should call on Iran to stop its violations of the agreement and cooperate with the agency to explain why uranium particles were found in old, undeclared sites, in results that were first published by Reuters and confirmed by the agency's report this week.

 Iran in turn, said in its document, which was seen by Reuters, that it considers this step destructive and represents the end of the mutual understanding reached on February 21 between the agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran," referring to an agreement with the agency’s director-general, Raphael Grossi, which was concluded early this week.

Iran added that this "may lead to more complications in the nuclear deal," noting that France, Britain, Germany, and the United States "revealed their plans" regarding a draft resolution to the Council.

The Iranian government did not mention the measures that it stopped implementing this week but said that they include the so-called additional protocol that allows the IAEA to conduct surprise inspections at undisclosed sites.