Iran suspends cooperation with U.N. nuclear watchdog

HILARY SWIFT/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, in Vienna, in May 2024. Iranian officials have criticized Grossi for saying that there was no evidence of a systematic effort to build nuclear bombs only after Israel began its military attacks.

Iran’s president has enacted a law to suspend cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Iranian state media reported today, in a move that will shut out international inspectors from overseeing the country’s contested nuclear program.

The decision will further strain relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which were already at a low point since the start of the 12-day war with Israel and the United States that battered Iran’s nuclear facilities and brought calls from Israel for renewed sanctions on Iran.

Iran could feel that it needs to start work on building a weapon as a deterrent to future attacks, experts have warned. But Iran’s move to cut ties with the IAEA may also be a tactic to gain leverage in new negotiations with the Trump administration over the future of the Iranian nuclear program.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Tammy Bruce, said Iran’s suspension was “unacceptable” at a time it has “a window of opportunity to reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity.”

“Iran cannot and will not have a nuclear weapon,” she told reporters.

Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. The IAEA has said that while it had no evidence that Iran was building a weapon, the country was stockpiling around 882 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which could enable the government to build 10 bombs.

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It is unclear how badly the strikes damaged Iran’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump insisted it was “obliterated,” while Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director-general, said that Iran could begin enriching uranium again in a “matter of months.”

One of the IAEA’s main purposes is to monitor the nuclear activity of countries that have signed on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to try to prevent the building of nuclear weapons. Iran is a party to the treaty. Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it, is not.

The IAEA said that it was aware of the reports that Iran was suspending its cooperation and that it was waiting for further official information.

Iran’s hawkish parliament passed the law last week. But it had not been clear whether the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, considered a political moderate, would put the law into effect or try to block it.

There has been widespread outrage in the Iranian government since the IAEA issued a declaration last month that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. The agency released its findings the day before Israel launched its June 13 attack. Iranian officials argue the censure gave Israel political cover for its strikes.

Iranian officials also accused Grossi of saying only after Israel began its strikes that there was no evidence of a systematic effort to build nuclear weapons. In fact, that assessment was in the report Grossi delivered to the agency’s board in May, before the attack.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called on Germany, France and Britain to reimpose sanctions on Iran in response to the new law under a provision in the 2015 deal that limited the country’s uranium enrichment.

The deal was agreed to by the Obama administration, the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the European Union and Germany. Trump pulled the United States out during his first term, but European countries have continued to adhere to it.

Under a so-called snapback provision in the agreement, sanctions can be reimposed if Iran is found to have violated the nuclear provisions.

“There’s justification for snap back. But I don’t think we’re there yet,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House in London. “Iran is trying to calibrate the escalation. It doesn’t have too many cards to play, but this is the first opening salvo.”

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese called the new law a “disastrous signal.”

“Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA is essential for a diplomatic solution,” he told reporters today, urging Tehran to reverse course.

Iranian lawmakers have stipulated two conditions for resuming cooperation, according to Iranian state media: that the safety of its nuclear program and scientists is secured, and an acknowledgment of what it says is its right under international law to enrich uranium.

Whether those conditions have been met would be decided by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which shapes the country’s security and foreign policy.

During the war, Iranian lawmakers also threatened to pass a law that would withdraw Iran from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The agreement requires transparency over its nuclear program and a commitment not to build a nuclear bomb.

By focusing on its relationship with the nuclear watchdog, Iranian officials appear to have put that threat aside.

Trump has said that negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program could resume as soon as this week, but Iran’s foreign minister said they could start only if the United States guaranteed that it would not attack the country during talks. “In order for us to decide to reengage, we will have to first ensure that America will not revert back to targeting us in a military attack during the negotiations,” the minister, Abbas Araghchi, told CBS News.

Under its agreement with Iran, the IAEA is supposed to inspect the nuclear facilities that Iran has publicly declared, including those at Natanz and Fordo, which the United States bombed. Israeli officials say there may be secret nuclear sites that Iran has not disclosed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

See more:War in the Middle EastWorld news

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