Iran’s nukesIran Confirms End to Snap Inspections as U.S. Seeks to “Lengthen, Strengthen” Nuclear Deal

Published 24 February 2021

Iranian state television has confirmed that the country has ended its implementation of the Additional Protocol, which allows for so-called snap inspections of nuclear-related sites, signaling the further disintegration of atomic safeguards in place since a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Iranian state television has confirmed that the country has ended its implementation of the Additional Protocol, which allows for so-called snap inspections of nuclear-related sites, signaling the further disintegration of atomic safeguards in place since a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The move on February 22 came after Tehran floated the possibility of dramatically escalating uranium enrichment as Washington and its Western partners scrambled to salvage the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) that the previous U.S. administration abandoned in 2018.

Word of the imminent breakout from the Additional Protocol followed defiant statements by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that included a vow to “not back down on the nuclear issue.”

Khamenei also suggested that Tehran could boost uranium enrichment as high as 60 percent — below the 90-percent level for a bomb.

But it is well above the 20-percent enrichment announced by Tehran last month and many multiples above the 3.67-percent limit agreed as part of the JCPOA.

A U.S. State Department spokesman was later quoted as saying that 60-percent enrichment sounded “like a threat” but that Washington would not respond to hypotheticals and posturing.

Earlier, White House press secretary Jenn Psaki said that the United States’ European allies were still awaiting a response from Iran on an offer to host an informal meeting of current members of the JCPOA.

Newly inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration vowed on February 22 that it will return to “strict compliance” with the JCPOA if Tehran does the same.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in a pre-recorded speech that Washington hopes to extend and bolster the nuclear deal that has come under intense pressure lately.

Working with allies and partners, we will also seek to lengthen and strengthen the JCPOA and address other areas of concern, including Iran’s destabilizing regional behavior and ballistic-missile development and proliferation.”

At the same conference, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Iran to fully comply with the pact and said compliance was in Tehran’s interest.

It is in Iran’s best interest to change course now, before the agreement is damaged beyond repair,” Maas said.

Maas said that Germany expected “full compliance, full transparency and full cooperation” from Iran with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose chief Rafael Grossi reached a temporary agreement in Iran on February 21 on site inspections that he called a “significant achievement.”