Iran official says nuke inspector deal expired

Polls: Conservatives set to split into two

Tehran, May 23: Iran’s hard-line parliament speaker said on Sunday a temporary deal between Tehran and international inspectors to preserve surveillance images taken at nuclear sites had ended, escalating tensions amid diplomatic efforts to save the Islamic Republic’s atomic accord with world powers. As fellow hard-liners demanded Iran delete the images, officials delayed an earlier-planned news conference by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. That signalled negotiations between the United Nations agency and Tehran will continue through Sunday night.

The last-minute discussions further underscored the narrowing window for the US and others to reach terms with Iran. The Islamic Republic is already enriching and stockpiling uranium at levels far beyond those allowed by its 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran’s hard-line parliament in December approved a bill that would suspend part of UN inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories did not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions by February.

The IAEA struck a threemonth

Tehran, May 23: A presidential election in Iran next month could provide the final straw to split an already long-divided conservative political camp, after years of growing divisions. While the list of approved candidates has yet to be released, the June 18 poll is already widely expected to be a showdown between conservative Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker, and ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi.

According

to

deal with Iran in February to have it hold the surveillance images, with Tehran threatening to delete them afterward if no deal had been reached.

That three-month deadline expired Friday under the Gregorian calendar. Under the Persian calendar, however, the threemonth deadline comes on Monday. On Sunday morning during a session of parliament, speaker Mohammad committee, close to

600 hopefuls — including

40 women — have registered to be candidates to succeed moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.

But only a handful will be allowed to run after vetting by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated, unelected body.

The first fractures within the conservatives date back to the “Green Movement”, which emerged in

2009.

Bagher Qalibaf announced the deal had expired. He said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, supported the decision to see the deal as void. “After these three months, the International Atomic Energy Agency definitely won’t have the right to access the camera footage or transfer them,” he said.