Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to end snap inspection measures at its nuclear sites by mid-February, according to a letter from the Tehran government released by the IAEA today.
The move followed Iran's vow to end short-notice IAEA checks of its nuclear plants in retaliation for a vote by the watchdog agency's governing board to report Tehran to the UN Security Council over concerns it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear fuel research and development programme, including small-scale uranium enrichment, aims to make electricity. But Western leaders who initiated Saturday's IAEA vote suspect Iran is hiding an atomic bomb project.
"All Agency containment and surveillance measures which were in place beyond the Agency's normal safeguards measures should be removed by mid-February 2006," a senior official in Iran's nuclear energy commission wrote in a February 5th letter to the IAEA.
The letter to the IAEA Secretariat also said Iran would limit future cooperation with UN inspectors to its obligations under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The 1997 Additional Protocol (AP) to the NPT, which Iran adhered to voluntarily but never ratified, allowed snap inspections whereas under the older NPT, inspectors must give a host country much longer notice before visiting a nuclear site.
Diplomats and analysts not involved in the push to report Iran to the Security Council, condemned by Iran as lacking any legal basis, said Tehran's cancellation of AP compliance would severely impair the NPT safeguards regime in the country.