After blocking UN nuclear watchdog, Iran allows inspectors to return
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Aug 28
- 4 min read
By Erika Solomon and Julian E. Barnes
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has sent a team of inspectors back to Iran for the first time since the country suspended cooperation with the agency last month, in what could be a step toward restoring independent oversight of Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian officials on Wednesday confirmed the visit from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The day before, Iranian diplomats met with their counterparts from Britain, France and Germany to explore restarting talks over limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment.
While inspectors visited Bushehr, Iran’s operating nuclear power plant, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the IAEA, told reporters in Washington that he anticipated his organization would be able to inspect the three Iranian facilities struck in U.S. military attacks in June.
The three European governments have warned that they will reinstate wide-reaching sanctions on Iran by the end of August if they do not see a path toward renegotiating a landmark deal — signed in 2015 by Iran, the United States and other world powers — that limits Iranian uranium enrichment. The agreement expires Oct. 18.
Tensions between Iran, the IAEA and Western governments have been high since Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June. U.S. forces eventually joined the Israeli campaign, which battered Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel and the United States said the attacks aimed to neutralize the threat that Iran may produce a nuclear weapon.
In the weeks after the war, Iran suspended cooperation with the U.N. watchdog. Relations were already at a low point even before the conflict, after the international agency declared in June that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
But since the strikes, Grossi’s team has been negotiating with Iran to restart inspections, which led to the return to Bushehr.
Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. The IAEA said that while it had no evidence that Iran was building a weapon, the country was stockpiling about 882 pounds of highly enriched uranium, beyond the grade needed to produce nuclear energy.
Iranian officials accused the IAEA, which released its findings the day before Israeli strikes began June 13, of giving Israel political cover for starting the war. Iran’s move to block the U.N. watchdog raised concerns that the international community would lose any oversight on the country’s nuclear activities at a moment when experts were warning that Iran, which suffered heavy losses to military infrastructure in the war, may seek to move any efforts to build a nuclear weapon underground.
Grossi said that Iran had an obligation to allow inspections of the three sites hit by the U.S. military, but that talks over the technical details of those visits were still underway.
It is not clear how accessible any of those sites might be, and if the attacks have sealed off access. While Iran would have no obligation to dig out the site for inspectors to gain access, Grossi said the IAEA has equipment that can detect nuclear material even without full access.
“There is no exemption or exception when it comes to what we need to inspect,” he said.
Grossi said the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites were “consequential, and the capacity has been severely degraded.” But he said resuming full inspections was critical to ensure nuclear material is not used to make a weapon.
He also said the IAEA had not found any evidence to contradict the idea that Iran had not moved its supplies of highly enriched uranium, and that much of it remained at the sites struck by the United States in June.
Grossi also met with Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s top international negotiator, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and the national security adviser. After the meeting, Grossi said he believed the United States was open to a meaningful dialogue, as long as it was designed to move to “concrete agreements.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Wednesday that the inspectors were visiting Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant.
“Decisions have now been made regarding the replacement of the fuel at the Bushehr power plant, which must be carried out under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors,” he said, adding that any future cooperation would have to work within the framework of a new Iranian law.
Under the law, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, which shapes the country’s security and foreign policy, can decide on new parameters for cooperation.
Granting reentry to U.N. watchdogs was one of the three demands European officials made of Iran to avoid imposing a snapback provision, which allows countries to restore sanctions that were in place before the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment was reached.
Iran has argued that the right to impose snapback provisions was abrogated by Washington when it withdrew from the deal in 2018.
European diplomats said the meeting with Iranian deputy foreign ministers in Geneva on Tuesday did not result in substantive change from Iran, raising the likelihood that the Europeans may set off the process to reimpose sanctions as early as Thursday or Friday.
That would begin with a 30-day period before the sanctions resume — a month for further negotiation that is likely to become more serious as Iran and its allies try to suspend snapback provisions for several months, if not forever.
Grossi said that even if the European powers announced a reimposition of sanctions, he would continue to negotiate to gain access to the sites.
“Don’t forget there is still time,” he said. “There is a month and many things could happen.”
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