IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that nuclear inspectors would have to be in Iran to implement a resolution to Iran’s stockpile of enriched nuclear material, in line with the preliminary U.S.-Iran peace agreement. File photo by Max Slovencik/EPA
The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed Wednesday that its inspectors would conduct checks on Iran’s nuclear sites in line with a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that, given the MoU specifically states that the IAEA will oversee the in-country neutralizing of Iran’s stockpile of enriched material, an inspections regime would have to be established but stressed that he could not say when the work would get underway.
“Whether this happens the day after tomorrow or in one week or in 10 days, it’s important, but not essential. This is going to happen, of course, if they want to comply with the agreement. If they don’t want, it’s another matter,” said Grossi.
Senior Iranian negotiator and deputy foreign minister Kazeem Gharibabadi said his team had not met with Grossi during round one of U.S.-Iran talks at the weekend in Switzerland and reiterated comments by a colleague on Tuesday that Tehran had no plans to permit access to nuclear sites damaged in U.S. strikes in March and April during the war and in June 2025.
“These issues will only be examined and settled within the framework of a final agreement, and as a result of the other party’s practical action to terminate all sanctions,” he said.
Prior to the initial U.S. bombardment, Iran was thought to have about 440 kilograms total of material enriched to close to weapons grade — but that is now believed to be either reduced to “dust” or inaccessible in underground plants buried beneath millions of tons of rocks and rubble.
U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on statements by Vice President JD Vance, who was at the talks over the weekend, to journalists in Switzerland on Monday that the Iranians had agreed to allow IAEA inspectors into Iran.
Trump said Tuesday that the Iranians’ statements were 100% “wrong” and that if they were correct, he would “cancel the meetings [negotiations to reach a final peace agreement] right now.”
However, he stressed there was no hurry for the inspectors to go back in, saying that they would be on the ground in Iran “at the appropriate time.”
The last IAEA specialists departed Iran on July 4 after more than 10 years of inspections of Iran’s implementation of its nuclear commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, at the request of the United Nations Security Council.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump presents a Medal of Honor to Tom Ripley on behalf of his father, John W. Ripley, during a Medal of Honor award ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
