TEHRAN: The head of the UN nuclear Regulator International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran has agreed to extend UN inspectors' access to its nuclear sites for three months. But the hurriedly brokered agreement will give IAEA officials less access and end their right to make snap inspections.

A law coming into force on Tuesday by Iranian MPs requires the government to stop allowing the inspection at short-notice of declared or undeclared nuclear sites by experts from the IAEA.

Iran is changing its access policy from Tuesday because the US has not lifted the sanctions imposed since Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, the BBC reported. Washington and Tehran now have more time to seek a compromise.

Then-Donald Trump administration re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, and Tehran retaliated by resuming nuclear activity barred under the agreement signed with six world powers in 2015.

Iran says it will not reverse the measures unless the US fully complies with the 2015 deal - but US President Joe Biden has said Iran must do so first. The crisis over Iran's nuclear programme has been on the international agenda for almost 20 years. Iran says its atomic programme is for peaceful purposes, while the US and others suspect Iran is secretly seeking the capability to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran had agreed to resume the snap inspections under the 2015 deal, having previously suspended them in 2006.

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