In his Twitter account on Monday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf expounded on the way of implementation of Additional Protocol (AP) which will be halted from Feb. 23 and wrote, “According to the law of the Parliament, implementation of the Additional Protocol will be completely stopped from Feb. 23, 2021, and any access beyond the ‘safeguards’ is absolutely prohibited and illegal.”
Any kind of cooperation with IAEA in the future beyond the ‘safeguards’ requires adopting a decision by the Iranian Parliament according to Article 7, so that Article 9 of the Parliament’s law will guarantee its strict implementation, he emphasized.
According to a joint statement released by the IAEA late on Sunday following its director-general’s trip to Tehran on Sunday, Iran will stop its voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and will deny IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities beyond the Safeguards Agreement as of February 23, 2021 for three months.
Accordingly, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) informed the IAEA that in order to comply with the act passed by the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran called ‘Strategic Action to Cease Actions and Protect the Interests of Iranian Nation’, Iran will stop the implementation of the voluntary measures as envisaged in the JCPOA, as of 23 February 2021.
The agreement was reached following IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi's visit to Iran, during which he held separate meetings with Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian vice-president and AEOI chief, as well as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Earlier on Sunday, Zarif said that the Islamic Republic will be open to negotiations on reviving the historic 2015 nuclear accord once all signatories begin fulfilling their obligations.
Iranian lawmakers on Sunday once again highlighted the necessity of stopping the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the sanctions remain in place.
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