Iran says it will continue talks with UN nuclear watchdog

Iran says it will continue engaging with the United Nations nuclear watchdog and probably hold another round of negotiations in the coming days.

Tehran denied the International Atomic Energy Agency access to its nuclear sites after Israel and the US bombed the country during a 12-day war in June.

“We had talks last week. These talks will continue and there will be another round of talks between Iran and the agency, probably in the coming days,” foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.

Iran had accused the IAEA of effectively paving the way for the Israeli-American attack with a 31 May report that led the agency’s board to declare the country in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

The Islamic Republic denies Western accusations of a covert effort to develop nuclear weapons capability, saying it is committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which mandates peaceful uses of atomic energy for signatories.

“The level of our relations has changed after the events that took place, we do not deny that,” Mr Baghaei told state media, referring to the IAEA. “However, our relations remain direct.”

He criticised the UK, France and Germany for threatening to use the “snapback” mechanism to restore UN sanctions on Iran.

“The very act of Europe using this tool as a means of pressure against Iran is an illegal move,” Mr Baghaei said, according to Iran International. “The three European countries failed to fulfil their obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, and after the US and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, they neither condemned it nor even tried to provide a logical explanation of their positions. We believe that the three European countries have no right to use this mechanism. We never cut off negotiations with these three countries. They must decide whether they want to play a constructive role or a negative role aligned with the interests of the Zionist regime.”

In July, Iran enacted a law passed by parliament suspending cooperation with the IAEA. The law stipulates that any future inspections of Iranian nuclear sites needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The previous month, Donald Trump had described the US strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear facilities as a “spectacular military success”, adding the sites had been “completely and totally obliterated”.

But experts said the impact of the strikes was limited since Iran had time to evacuate them.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Mr Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama that had dramatically reduced Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

In response to Mr Trump’s withdrawal and the reintroduction of sanctions, Iran started to increase uranium enrichment and build up its stockpile once more, and removed monitoring equipment from nuclear facilities.