Iran officially imposes curbs on UN nuclear inspections

Iran officially started restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities Tuesday, a bid to pressure European countries and President Joe Biden's administration to lift crippling economic sanctions and restore the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran's parliament in December approved a bill calling for partial suspension of the inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories to the deal didn't provide relief from oil and banking sanctions by 23 February.

It will also stop implementation of the additional protocol that allows the IAEA inspectors to carry out more intrusive inspections to Iran's nuclear facilities.

Following the 2015 deal, Iran voluntarily agreed to implement the additional protocol.

Under the protocol with Iran, the IAEA was able to collect and analyze hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras, the agency said in 2017.

(Image credit: AP)