This photo shows Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi (not in the photograph) in Tehran on March 4, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)
TEHRAN — The Iranian nuclear chief on Wednesday denied The Associated Press's claim that Iran is building a nuclear facility "so deep in the earth," Iranian Students' News Agency reported.
"Iran is working according to the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the safeguards agreements and whenever it plans to carry out any activity, it informs the agency of the arrangements and acts based on them," President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Eslami told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.
Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the JCPOA, with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country
On Monday, The Associated Press claimed that Iran is building a nuclear facility "likely beyond the range of a last-ditch US weapon designed to destroy such site" near a peak of the Zagros Mountains in the central part of the country.
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Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.
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The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks in August 2022.