MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The inspection activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Iran have noticeably dropped, as they are no longer of the same scale as before, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.

"The IAEA inspection activities in Iran were the most intensive when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal - TASS) was in effect," he said citing statistics that three inspectors were on Iranian territory every second day, with each of them carrying out an inspection.

"Now, this intensity has markedly plummeted, it corresponds to what is required under Iran’s current comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA, which Iran has not exited and which it still abides by, but this is not the same scale and amount as it used to be," he said.

Ryabkov added that, nevertheless, the IAEA and the international community have a certain opportunity to observe what is happening in this area in Iran.

"What is going to happen next, by and large, depends on Westerners since it was the unilateral pullout of the United States from the JCPOA in 2018 that dealt a crushing blow to this structure," the diplomat said.

The Russian deputy foreign minister said that against the backdrop of universal instability in the Middle East, the issue of anti-Iranian sanctions has been brought up again now.

"I do not assume that the issue of reviving full implementation of the JCPOA will be relevant in the foreseeable future. Moreover, as the US election is approaching, and in the US, as you understand, the Iranian issue is always extremely heated and is frequently exploited as a tool for intra-political settling of scores," Ryabkov said.