Tehran insists IAEA inspectors may only access two existing nuclear facilities for now.
By World Israel News Staff
A senior Iranian official said Wednesday that international inspectors will not be permitted to visit nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel during the recent conflict, casting doubt on the future of nuclear monitoring efforts and raising new questions about Tehran’s intentions for its nuclear program.
The remarks appeared to directly contradict statements made by President Donald Trump and recent comments from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), both of whom had indicated that Iran had agreed to expanded international inspections as part of ongoing negotiations.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been leading Tehran’s negotiating team in talks with the United States, said inspectors would be barred from visiting nuclear sites that were targeted in recent airstrikes.
“IAEA inspectors do not have the right to inspect nuclear sites bombed by the U.S.,” Ghalibaf reportedly said on Iranian state television, according to Al Jazeera.
“Currently, inspectors only have access to two locations: Bushehr power plant and Tehran reactor,” he added.
Ghalibaf also rejected reports that inspectors would be granted access to Iran’s major nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, describing those claims as “false.”
Last Friday, however, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said during a press confernece that “there is an agreement” regarding Iran granting access to the agency’s inspectors.
In order for Tehran “to comply with that agreement, the IAEA will have to have access and inspect” nuclear sites throughout the country, he added.
Grossi did not specify whether the understanding included access to facilities that had been damaged or destroyed during the recent conflict, leaving uncertainty over the scope of any inspection.
President Trump has also maintained that Iran agreed to extensive verification measures as part of the emerging diplomatic framework.
“Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!),” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform in late June.
“This will insure ‘Nuclear Honesty.’ If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”
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