Iran will never hand the UN watchdog images from inside some of the country’s nuclear sites as a monitoring agreement with the agency has ended, the country’s parliament speaker said on Sunday.
"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 Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
The IAEA and Tehran struck the three-month monitoring agreement in February to cushion the blow of Iran reducing its co-operation with the agency, and it allowed monitoring of some activities that would otherwise have been axed to continue.
The agreement was later extended for a month until June 24 but then expired. The IAEA demanded an immediate reply from Iran over whether it would extend the agreement but was told that Tehran was under no obligation to provide an official answer.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi wrote to Iran last week "to understand Iran's position regarding the possible continued collection, recording and retention of data", the body’s report to its 35-nation Board of Governors said.
The US said it expected Tehran to engage with the IAEA and failure to do so would contrast with Iran's stated desire to return to compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal that limited enrichment and allowed oversight in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
The US and Iran have been holding indirect talks in Vienna, hosted by the Europeans, to discuss ways back to the 2015 deal that former president Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Talks began in April and are expected to last until at least July.
