Iran has threatened the UN atomic authority IAEA with considerable restrictions on inspections if there is no breakthrough in the nuclear dispute with the United States by the end of the month.
“If the nuclear agreement is not implemented in accordance with the treaty by the end of February, we are obliged to suspend the implementation of the IAEA additional protocol,” Foreign Office spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Monday.
The unlimited access of the inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities on the basis of the IAEA additional protocol is part of the Vienna nuclear agreement of 2015, which was forged to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
After the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement under former president Donald Trump, Iran started gradually violating various aspects of the deal.
The country has launched a higher uranium enrichment program, started the production of uranium metal, is working with faster centrifuges and storing far more uranium than allowed under the nuclear deal.
Iran’s intelligence chief Mahmoud Alavi caused confusion in a television interview recently, he alluded to the fact that atomic bomb construction may begin if the crippling US sanctions were not lifted immediately.
Khatibzadeh rejected this on Monday.
“Our goal is a peaceful nuclear project and nothing has changed that,” the ministry spokesman said on state television. “From an Islamic point of view, the production of weapons of mass destruction is still prohibited.”
Trump withdrew from the international nuclear treaty in May 2018. With tough sanctions and a policy of maximum pressure, he wanted to persuade the leadership in Tehran to negotiate an agreement with stronger and longer-term conditions.
The sanctions in particular led to the worst economic crisis in Iran’s history, in particular the sanctions on oil exports, which the country heavily depends on.
Iran’s minimum demands to solve the dispute on the nuclear deal included resuming oil exports and regaining access to blocked bank accounts, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday.
“For us it is important that we can sell our oil again and access our money in the banks,” Araghchi wrote on his Instagram page.
Otherwise, the nuclear deal would not make any sense for Iran, he said.
GNA
