IAEA headquarters
IAEA headquartersiStock

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Tuesday that Iran has informed the agency that it plans to halt snap nuclear inspections outside of its declared sites.

"Iran informed the IAEA on Feb 15 that the country will stop implementing voluntary transparency measures under the JCPOA as of Feb 23, including the Additional Protocol," said the UN’s nuclear watchdog in a statement quoted by Reuters.

The Additional Protocol of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the JCPOA, allows IAEA inspectors to visit undeclared sites in Iran at short notice.

The announcement comes a day after a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry threatened that the Islamic Republic would stop snap inspections from the IAEA if other signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers do not fulfill their “obligations” by later this month.

Iran has consistently scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from it in 2018.

Current President Joe Biden has expressed a desire to return to the 2015 agreement but has stressed he would return to the 2015 agreement if Iran returned to compliance with it.

Iran has repeatedly made clear that it will not renegotiate the original agreement.