Ready To Accept Inspection, Iran Only Allows What Was Agreed In The 2015 Nuclear Deal

Defense systems at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. (Wikimedia Commons/Hamed Saber)

JAKARTA - Iran will not allow inspections beyond those in the 2015 Nuclear Deal, the country's nuclear chief said on Wednesday, as efforts to revive the deal await a United States response.

"We are committed to inspections within the framework of the nuclear deal, which are related to nuclear restrictions that we have accepted in the past. No more one word, no less one word," said Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, according to a video carried by state media, reported Reuters August 24.

Earlier, a senior US official told Reuters on Monday that Iran had dropped some of its main demands for a revival, a deal to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

That includes calls for international inspectors to close some investigations into its atomic program, bringing a possible deal closer.

However, Eslami appeared to oppose that, saying the investigation should close "before implementation day" if the 2015 nuclear deal is revived, state news agency IRNA reported.

It is known that Washington's response to the draft agreement proposed by the European Union to restore the 2015 Nuclear Deal is still awaited.

Iran insists the nuclear pact can only be salvaged, if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) overturns its claims on Tehran's nuclear work. Washington and other Western powers view Tehran's request as outside the scope of reviving the deal.

Last June, the 35-member UN nuclear watchdog Board of Governors passed a resolution, drafted by the United States, France, Britain and Germany, criticizing Iran for failing to explain traces of uranium found at three unannounced locations.

In response to the resolution, Iran expanded its underground uranium enrichment by installing advanced, more efficient centrifuges, as well as removing all IAEA monitoring equipment installed under the 2015 Nuclear Deal.

On Wednesday, Eslami reiterated Iran's claims of unexplained traces of uranium by exiled Iranian dissidents and Iran's arch-enemy Israel, IRNA reported.