Iran says IAEA report on undeclared sites ‘not fair’

Iran condemned as "not fair" Tuesday a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on traces of nuclear material found at three undeclared sites.

The comments came with talks deadlocked since March on reviving a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.

"Unfortunately, this report does not reflect the reality of the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters, referring to the Monday report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"It's not a fair and balanced report," he said, adding: "We expect this path to be corrected."

In the report, the watchdog said it still had questions which were "not clarified" regarding nuclear material previously found at three sites -- Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad -- which had not been declared by Iran as having hosted nuclear activities.

It said its long-running efforts to get Iranian officials to explain the presence of nuclear material had failed to provide answers to its questions.

Iran and the IAEA agreed in March on an approach for resolving the issue of the sites, one of the remaining obstacles to reviving the 2015 deal. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi is due to "report his conclusions" to the watchdog's board of governors at a meeting scheduled for next week.

Formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal gave Iran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.

Then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the pact in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.

President Joe Biden's administration says it favours a return to the deal, including lifting key sanctions, but has...

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