Araqchi: Extension of Iran-IAEA Agreement Not in Breach of Parliamentary Act

In an interview with Sputnik, Araqchi said Iran’s decision to keep recording data at its nuclear sites for one more month under an extended agreement with the IAEA has not violated the Parliament’s Strategic Action on lifting of sanctions.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday extended the technical agreement reached in February for another month, allowing the negotiators in Vienna to weigh plans for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The agreement allows the IAEA to maintain its monitoring equipment at Iranian nuclear sites, but Iran will keep the tapes until the JCPOA is restored and the US sanctions are lifted.

The Iranian lawmakers were insisting that the recordings must be deleted with the expiry of the three-month deal with the IAEA, calling for the implementation of the Strategic Action on lifting the sanctions and safeguarding national interests, ratified by the Parliament in October 2020.

Elsewhere in the interview, Araqchi reiterated that Iran is prepared to resume honoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action once all of the US sanctions are lifted in a verifiable manner.

He said there are signs of US’ plan for a return to the JCPOA, but the negotiations are not still over.

A new round of talks to revive the JCPOA began in Vienna on April 6 between Iran and the remaining members of the nuclear deal, namely the UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany.

The US left the JCPOA in 2018 and restored the economic sanctions that the accord had lifted. Tehran retaliated with remedial nuclear measures that it is entitled to take under the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36.

The current negotiations examine the potential of revitalization of the nuclear deal and the US’ likely return to it.