UN nuclear agency's deputy to visit Iran but no inspections planned, Tehran says

The deputy head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog will visit Iran to rekindle soured ties but the trip will not involve inspection of nuclear facilities, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday.

The visit would be the first following the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict in June, when Israel and the US struck some of its key nuclear facilities.

“As long as we haven’t reached a new framework for cooperation, there will be no cooperation, and the new framework will definitely be based on the law passed by the parliament,” Araghchi said on Sunday.

Aragchi said that Tehran would only allow for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cooperation through the approval of the Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest security body, according to state-run media.

On 3 July, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA after the controversial strikes.

Inspectors' access limited

The decision will likely further limit inspectors’ ability to track Tehran’s programme that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

It is unclear when Tehran and Washington would resume negotiations for a nuclear programme deal, but Tehran has previously used limited IAEA inspections as a pressure tactic in negotiations with the West.

US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organised nuclear weapons programme in 2003, though experts said this year that Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60%—and was a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

The US bombed three major Iranian nuclear sites in June. Over the course of the 12-day conflict, nearly 1,100 people were killed in Iran, including many military commanders and nuclear scientists, while 28 people were killed in Israel.

Tehran claims that the IAEA's nuclear watchdog essentially set the stage for the attacks when it released a damning report on 31 May that caused the 35-nation Board of Governors to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation commitments.

Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, said it remained committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

But according to a law passed by parliament last month, Iran's Supreme National Security Council must approve any future IAEA inspections of Iran's nuclear sites.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has stated that inspections continue to be his top priority.