In brief
The agreement between Iran and the IAEA aims to restore inspection access to all of Iran's nuclear sites, as stated by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. This follows tumultuous relations after Israeli strikes on Iranian sites in June, raising international concerns over Iran's nuclear materials security and compliance with international regulations. Both parties emphasize the immediacy of cooperation and compliance following this accord.
VIENNA (AP) — An agreement between Tehran and the United Nations’ atomic watchdog will provide the U.N. agency access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities and require Iran to report on the whereabouts of material that was at sites attacked by Israel earlier this year, the head of the agency said Wednesday.
The accord was announced Tuesday after a meeting between International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Details of the agreement were not immediately released. In an address Wednesday to his agency’s board of governors in Vienna, Grossi said the document “provides for a clear understanding for the procedures of inspection notifications and their implementation.”
The agreement “includes all facilities and installations in Iran and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities including the nuclear material present at those,” Grossi added, noting it will “open the way for the respective inspections and access” without specifying when that would happen.
“The technical nature of this document does not diminish its profound significance. Iran and the agency will now resume cooperation in a respective and comprehensive way. These practical steps, allow me to state the obvious, need to be implemented now,” Grossi told the board of governors.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 2 signed a law adopted by Iran’s Parliament suspending all cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog following Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June, during which Israel and the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites.
IAEA inspectors have been unable to verify Iran’s near bomb-grade stockpile since the start of the war, which the U.N. nuclear watchdog has described as “a matter of serious concern.” A confidential report by the Vienna-based IAEA indicated that as of June 13, Iran had 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60%.
If enriched to 90%, that uranium could potentially produce up to 10 nuclear weapons. The only site inspected by the IAEA since the war has been the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, where inspectors watched a fuel replacement procedure over two days.
Araghchi stated the agreement addresses Iran’s concerns and lays out the technical requirements for cooperation with the IAEA, cautioning that any hostile act against Iran, including the reimposition of U.N. sanctions, would terminate the agreement.
This agreement comes amid heightened tensions, as France, Germany, and the U.K. began the process of reimposing sanctions on Iran over perceived non-compliance with a 2015 accord aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
