Iran suspends cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after US and Israeli air strikes hit its key nuclear facilities. 

Iran has previously accused the IAEA of providing a justification for Israel’s air strikes, which began on June 13, a day after the UN nuclear watchdog declared Iran in violation of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

That treaty has countries agree not to build or obtain nuclear weapons, and allows the IAEA to conduct inspections to verify that countries correctly declare their programs.

The order by Mr Pezeshkian to suspend cooperation with the agency included no timetables or details about what that would entail.

Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signalled in a CBS News interview that Tehran would still be willing to continue negotiations with the US.

“I don’t think negotiations will restart as quickly as that,” Mr Araghchi said, referring to US president Donald Trump’s comments that talks could start as early as this week. However, he added: “The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut.”

The IAEA, which has long monitored Iran’s nuclear program, said it was waiting for “further official information from Iran” on what the suspension meant.

A diplomat with knowledge of IAEA operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, said that agency inspectors were still in Iran after the announcement and had not been told by the government to leave.

Israel condemns the move

Iran’s decision drew an immediate condemnation from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

“Iran has just issued a scandalous announcement about suspending its cooperation with the IAEA,” he said in an X post. “This is a complete renunciation of all its international nuclear obligations and commitments.”

Mr Saar urged European nations that were part of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal to implement its so-called snapback clause. 

That would reimpose all UN sanctions on it originally lifted by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, if one of its Western parties declares the Islamic Republic out of compliance with it.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, and the IAEA does not have access to its weapons-related facilities.

Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67 per cent — enough to fuel a nuclear power plant, but far below the threshold of 90 per cent needed for weapons-grade uranium. 

The deal also drastically reduced Iran’s stockpile of uranium, limited its use of centrifuges and relied on the IAEA to oversee Tehran’s compliance through additional oversight. 

But Mr Trump, in his first term in 2018, unilaterally withdrew Washington from the accord, insisting it was not tough enough and did not address Iran’s missile program or its support for militant groups in the wider Middle East. 

That set in motion years of tensions, including attacks at sea and on land.

Iran had been enriching up to 60 per cent — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. It also has enough of a stockpile to build multiple nuclear bombs, should it choose to do so.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an organised weapons program up until 2003.

Suspension comes after strikes

The recent Israeli air strikes decimated the upper ranks of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and targeted its arsenal of ballistic missiles. 

The strikes also hit Iran’s nuclear sites, which Israel claimed put Tehran within reach of a nuclear weapon.

Iran has said the Israeli attacks killed 935 “Iranian citizens,” including 38 children and 102 women. 

However, Iran has a long history of offering lower death counts around unrest over political considerations.

The US Human Rights Activists group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, has put the death toll at 1,190 people killed, including 436 civilians and 435 security force members. 

The attacks wounded another 4,475 people, the group said.

Meanwhile, it appears that Iranian officials are now assessing the damage done by the US strikes conducted on the three nuclear sites on June 22, including those at Fordow, a site built under a mountain about 100 kilometres south-west of Tehran.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analysed by the Associated Press show Iranian officials at Fordo on Monday likely examining the damage caused by American bunker busters. 

Trucks could be seen in the images, as well as at least one crane and an excavator at tunnels on the site. That corresponded to images shot Sunday by Maxar Technologies similarly showing the ongoing work.

AP/Reuters