UN nuclear agency IAEA, Iran agree on surveillance equipment

The U.N.'s nuclear agency and Iran announced Sunday that they struck a deal that will allow inspectors, to whom Tehran had restricted access since earlier in the year, to service the agency's surveillance equipment.

"IAEA's inspectors are permitted to service the identified equipment and replace their storage media which will be kept under the joint IAEA and (Iran's) AEOI seals in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The way and the timing are agreed by the two sides," they said in a joint statement.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi traveled to Iran Saturday for talks, days after the IAEA criticized Tehran for a lack of cooperation.

He met the chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, on Sunday.

"The two sides decided to maintain their mutual interactions and meetings at relevant levels," the statement said, adding Grossi planned another visit to Tehran "in the near future."

Grossi's visit comes after talks between major world powers to save Iran's nuclear deal have become deadlocked.

The 2015 deal promised Tehran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

But the landmark agreement was torpedoed in 2018 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump's unilateral decision to withdraw Washington from it and impose a punishing sanctions regime.

Iran has since stepped away from many of its commitments, but the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has advocated a return to diplomacy to save the agreement.

A point of contention this year has been the limits Iran has imposed on the IAEA's ability to monitor various of its nuclear facilities.

Iran has refused to provide real-time footage from cameras and other surveillance tools that the U.N. agency has installed in these locations.