Inspections cease

Dubai: Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kazem Gharibabadi, said yesterday it had ended implementation of the socalled Additional Protocol at midnight on Monday (local time).

The agreement allowed the IAEA to carry out shortnotice inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Also yesterday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran might enrich uranium up to 60% purity if the country needed it, while repeating a denial of any Iranian intent to seek nuclear weapons.

A US State Department spokesman said Khamenei's comments ``sounds like a threat'' but reiterated US willingness to engage in talks with Iran about returning to a 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to with six powers, a deal it has been breaching since the US withdrew in 2018.

The deal caps the fissile purity to which Iran can refine uranium at 3.67%.