Iranian parliament approves bill to potentially end nuclear inspections
Iran gave preliminary approval to a draft legislation that could potentially end inspections of nuclear sites by the start of 2021.
In a move that distances the country from the already weak 2015 international nuclear deal, Iran is set to go ahead with the proposal if the US oil and banking restrictions aren’t lifted within three months of its approval.
The bill, which was initially proposed in early November, still needs to be given a final go-ahead by parliament and the Guardian Council.
In 2015, Tehran inked an agreement with the so-called P+5 nations, made up of the China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, US, by which it committed to verifiable curbs on its nuclear development programme, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the Ayatollahs.
That deal started to crumble in 2018 when US President Donald Trump withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran, in response to alleged funding for various proxy conflicts across the region.
According to Bloomberg, the bill could also be used to revive the core of a contentious reactor and increase the country’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 20%.
That reactor could be brought online within two months, state-run IRIB News cited a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Tuesday.
The change of presidency could improve the deal’s situation as Democrat Joe Biden said he would rejoin the agreement if Iran complies with it.