Iranian MP says Tehran will expel UN nuclear inspectors unless sanctions are lifted

Move could undermine US efforts to re-join 2015 nuclear deal

An International Atomic Energy Agency inspector examines technology at the Iranian nuclear power plant of Natanz, 300 kilometres south of Tehran. AFP

Tehran will expel UN nuclear inspectors unless US sanctions are lifted by a February 21 deadline set by Iran's parliament, an Iranian MP  said on Saturday.

Iran's parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, passed a law in November that obliges the government to halt inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The law also requires the government to step up uranium enrichment beyond the limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased.

Iran’s Guardian Council, a watchdog, approved the law on December 2. The government said it would implement it.

“According to the law, if the Americans do not lift financial, banking and oil sanctions by February 21, we will definitely expel the IAEA inspectors from the country and will definitely end the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol,” MP Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani said.

The comments, referring to texts governing the IAEA’s mission and activities, were carried by several Iranian media outlets.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran had an obligation to allow the inspectors access.

“Once again the Iranian regime is using its nuclear programme to extort the international community and threaten regional security,” Mr Pompeo said.

Iran said last week it resumed 20 per cent uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility, breaching the nuclear pact with major powers and possibly complicating efforts by US president-elect Joe Biden to re-join the deal.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday  that Tehran was in no rush for the US to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, but that sanctions on the country must be lifted immediately.

"We are not insisting nor in a hurry for the US to return to the deal," Mr Khamenei said. "But what is logical is our demand, is the lifting of the sanctions. These brutal sanctions must be lifted immediately."

Tensions have grown between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when US President Donald Trump pulled his country from the deal between Iran and six world powers. It sought to limit Tehran’s nuclear programme and prevent it from developing atomic weapons.

Tehran often says it can quickly reverse its breaches if Washington’s sanctions are removed.

The US imposed new sanctions on Iran's steel sector last week, according to the Treasury Department. This will continue to increase pressure on Tehran in the final weeks of Mr Trump's presidency.

Washington blacklisted more than a dozen entities and one person, the Treasury said.

Russian contractors work at the Bushehr nuclear reactor site in 2007. The plant opened four years later. Bloomberg

An Iranian technician at the International Atomic Energy Agency inspects the country's Isfahan plant in 2007. Tehran is no longer co-operating with the agency at nuclear sites across the country. EPA

Workers wait to begin constructing a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2019. AFP

A metal-encased rod with 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel is inserted into a reactor in Tehran in 2012. AFP

Fomer Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country's Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi speak at the Bushehr nuclear site in 2015. AFP

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has been restarted. EPA

Mehdi Abrichamtchi, chairman of the Peace and Security Committee at the National Council of Resistance of Iran, shows journalists the location of a secret nuclear site in Iran in 2013. AFP

Workers prepare to begin the construction of a second reactor at the Bushehr site. AFP