IAEA Inspectors Leave Iran.. Grossi Calls for Negotiation with Tehran

SadaNews - The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that they have left Iran on Friday, after Tehran officially halted its cooperation with the agency, while the director of the agency emphasized the need to discuss with Tehran the resumption of monitoring activities at nuclear facilities.

The agency reported via its account on the "X" platform that the team of inspectors left Iran safely today heading to the agency's headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent conflict.

For his part, the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, stressed the need for talks with Iran to resume monitoring its nuclear program, stating, "Discussions about the resumption of monitoring and verification activities with Iran must take place as soon as possible."

"Security Concerns"

Meanwhile, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency withdrew its inspectors from Iran due to "security concerns."

This came after Iran officially suspended on Wednesday its cooperation with the IAEA following President Masoud Bezhakian's signing of the law approved by Parliament last week.

Iran threatened to stop cooperating with the agency, accusing it of bias towards Western countries and providing justification for the Israeli airstrikes that began the day after the IAEA Board of Governors voted on a resolution stating that Iran was not meeting its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The Iranian Parliament enacted the law on June 25, the day after the ceasefire came into effect. The law stipulates that any future inspection process conducted by the agency at Iranian nuclear sites will require the approval of the Supreme National Security Council in Tehran. The law did not specify procedural steps for this.

The Guardian Council, the body responsible for reviewing legislation in Iran, approved the bill and referred it to the relevant executive authority for implementation.

This is the second law issued by the Iranian Parliament regarding cooperation with the IAEA, after Iran significantly reduced its cooperation with international inspectors following its withdrawal from the Additional Protocol to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in February 2021. This move was in implementation of the "Strategic Action Plan to Counter US Sanctions" law, which was passed by Parliament in early December 2020.

Tensions have escalated between Tehran and the United Nations agency against the backdrop of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, which targeted Iranian military and nuclear facilities, included the assassination of nuclear scientists, and the United States joined in launching unprecedented strikes on three major nuclear facilities in Iran.