Kathmandu, May 25. The UN-backed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday signed a temporary agreement with the government of Iran, that allows one-month extension on the surveillance deal at Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier in February, U.N.’s nuclear watchdog and Iran’s capital Tehran had agreed to resume the nuclear inspection for 3 months. With Monday’s agreement, the deal would now end on June 24.

Surveillance Deal 

On February 21, the Director-General of IAEA Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Tehran for a negotiating weekend talk on transparency measures. The measures include timely inspection visits to non-nuclear sites, including military sites suspected of nuclear-related activity.

The deal also allowed inspectors to obtain images from surveillance cameras installed at the sites.

Iran Nuclear Deal

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of the Iran Nuclear Deal is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5 countries with the European union and Germany.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% in the next 15 years. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal. Since then the bilateral relation between the two countries deteriorated. In 2019, Iran tried to drop its JCPOA commitments. The US imposed illegal sanctions as Iran tried to enrich uranium at levels far beyond those allowed by the 2015 deal.

Experts claimed that stepping up the nuclear program can be Iran’s way of showing the world the assassination will withstand the nuclear activity of Iran. 

Illegal Sanctions

Earlier in December, the Iranian parliament had passed a law to partially suspend the “voluntary transparency measures” inside the country. Iran claimed that the law would be dissolved only when the US lifts the sanctions imposed by Trump’s administration.

On February 6, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated that the Islamic Republic was losing patience with the newly elected Biden’s administration’s signals to retain illegal sanctions. He urged Biden’s administration to return to the accord before the June election in Iran, as the new president could jeopardize the deal.

Two days later, while speaking with CBC News, US President Joe Biden said that the United States would not lift sanctions against Iran unless Iran stops enriching uranium first. 

On February 18, Biden’s administration announced that it is willing to return back to the international treaty if the European Union sends an invitation for the ‘negotiating talks with Iran’. Senior diplomats of the EU also showed interest in calling all parties for the deal.

A week later, the Surveillance deal was signed.