Qalibaf: IAEA Will Have No Access to Iran's Nuclear Sites Images

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, greets lawmakers after being elected as speaker of the parliament, in Tehran, Iran, May 28, 2020. AP
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, greets lawmakers after being elected as speaker of the parliament, in Tehran, Iran, May 28, 2020. AP
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Qalibaf: IAEA Will Have No Access to Iran's Nuclear Sites Images

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, greets lawmakers after being elected as speaker of the parliament, in Tehran, Iran, May 28, 2020. AP
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, greets lawmakers after being elected as speaker of the parliament, in Tehran, Iran, May 28, 2020. AP

Iranian parliament speaker Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday that a three-month monitoring deal between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog had expired as of Saturday, Iran's state TV reported, adding that the agency would no longer access images of nuclear sites.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is to hold a news conference on Sunday afternoon.

He is in talks with Iran on extending the monitoring arrangement that could affect negotiations between Tehran and six powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the IAEA said.

Under what is called an “Additional Protocol” with Iran, the IAEA “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” the agency said in 2017. The agency also said then that it had placed “2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment.”

"From May 22 and with the end of the three-month agreement, the agency will have no access to data collected by cameras inside the nuclear facilities agreed under the agreement," state TV quoted Qalibaf as saying.

Iran began gradually breaching terms of the pact with world powers after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

The pact aims to keep Iran from being able to make nuclear arms, which Tehran says it has never wanted to build.

In February, the watchdog and Iran agreed to keep “necessary” IAEA monitoring and verification activities, although Tehran would reduce cooperation with the agency, including by ending snap inspections.



US Slaps Iran-related Sanctions on Oil Tankers, China ‘Teapot' Refinery

The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
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US Slaps Iran-related Sanctions on Oil Tankers, China ‘Teapot' Refinery

The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
The Liberian-flagged tanker Ice Energy, chartered by the US government, takes Iranian oil from Iranian-flagged Lana (formerly Pegas) as part of a civil forfeiture action off the shore of Karystos, on the Island of Evia, Greece, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

The US on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting entities including for the first time a Chinese "teapot", or independent refinery, and vessels that supplied crude oil to such processing plants.
It was Washington's fourth round of sanctions on Iran's oil sales since President Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a "maximum pressure" campaign including efforts to drive down the country's exports to zero. Trump aims to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding militant groups.

The refinery Treasury targeted for sanctions is China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
"So-called 'teapot' refinery purchases of Iranian oil provide the primary economic lifeline for the Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and the primary backer of the murderous Houthis in Yemen," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the refinery bought oil from vessels linked to Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, which the US designated this month as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the US-designated Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics.

Treasury also imposed sanctions on 12 entities, and identified eight vessels as blocked property it said were responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China. These vessels are part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers that supply the private refineries.
It also placed Wang Xueqing, who it said is linked to the refinery, on the specially designated nationals, or SDN, list. Americans are prohibited from doing business with people placed on that list, and their US assets are blocked.
The vessels Treasury blocked included Panama-flagged Aurora Riley and the Catalina, and the Barbados-flagged Brava Lake.
The State Department said it was imposing sanctions on an oil terminal in China called Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage, for buying and storing Iranian crude oil from a sanctioned vessel.