IAEA, IRAN AGREE TO EXTEND NUKE MONITORING DEAL BY 1 MONTH

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have agreed to extend by one month a recently expired deal for Iran to temporarily accept IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday, Kyodo News reported.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told a press conference that the new deal would run through to June 24.

"We agreed that the information collected by our technical equipment in different locations...is going to be saved and will continue to be under the custody of the agency at every site where it is at the moment," Grossi said.

He added they also agreed "that the equipment and the verification monitoring activities that we agreed (before) will continue as now for one month."

Iran's parliament earlier set a deadline for the government to deny the IAEA access to surveillance images from inside some nuclear sites beyond a safeguards agreement if the United States refuses to remove sanctions.

That deadline expired on Saturday, while US sanctions are still in place despite improvements made in the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States left in 2018.

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