Iran says it won't cooperate with UN nuclear agency

The speaker of Iran's parliament resisted calls for the country to cooperate with the UN's nuclear agency, insisting on Sunday that it will not hand over images and data from nuclear sites after a temporary agreement expired. 

Iran had agreed to record and then hand over information from the nuclear sites at later dates to soften the impact of it stopping the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from carrying out snap inspections and viewing data collected by monitoring devices in real time. 

"The agreement has expired... any of the information recorded will never be given to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the data and images will remain in the possession of Iran," said Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The UN and US had been urging Iran to extend the agreement, which was initially made for three months and then extended in May, but Iran has been bullish in recent days, saying on Friday that it had no obligation to answer their requests. 

Iran initially reduced its cooperation in February as part of its staggered abandonment of commitments made under the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has unravelled since former US president Donald Trump withdrew the US from it and imposed sanctions on Iran. 

Iran's position on not sharing data could now complicate attempts to revive the deal since Joe Biden took over the US presidency.

Washington believes that by not engaging with the IAEA, Iran would contradict its claims that it wants to resume the nuclear deal as soon as possible, a US State Department official told Reuters.

The US has said there are differences of opinion that are preventing the revival of the deal, claiming the decision lies with Iran.

But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Saturday the responsibility lies with the US, which must lift all sanctions for the deal to resume. 

"The US and the Europeans know best that Iran made its decision by remaining in the agreement and made it survive when the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and imposed illegal and oppressive sanctions against the Iranian people," said Khatibzadeh, in comments reported by semi-official news agency FARS.