The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has sent its first team of inspectors back to Iran since the country suspended cooperation with the agency last month, in what could be the first step to restoring independent oversight of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iranian officials on Wednesday confirmed the visit from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or I.A.E.A. The day before, Iranian diplomats had met with their counterparts from Britain, France and Germany to explore a restart of talks over limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment.
The three European governments have warned that they will reinstate wide reaching sanctions on Iran by the end of August if they do not see a path toward renegotiating a landmark deal — signed in 2015 by Tehran, Washington and other world powers — that limits Iranian uranium enrichment. The agreement expires on Oct. 18.
Tensions between Iran, the I.A.E.A. and Western governments have been high since Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June. U.S. forces eventually joined the Israeli campaign, which battered Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel and the United States said the attacks aimed to neutralize the threat that Iran may produce a nuclear weapon.
In the weeks after the war, Iran suspended cooperation with the U.N. watchdog. Relations were already at a low point even before the conflict, after the international agency declared in June that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. The I.A.E.A. said that while it had no evidence that Iran was building a weapon, the country was stockpiling about 882 pounds of highly enriched uranium, beyond the grade needed to produce nuclear energy.
Iranian officials accused the I.A.E.A., which released its findings the day before Israeli strikes began on June 13, of giving Israel political cover for starting the war. Iran’s move to block the U.N. watchdog raised concerns that the international community would lose any oversight on the country’s nuclear activities at a moment when experts were warning that Iran, which suffered heavy losses to military infrastructure in the war, may seek to move any efforts to build a nuclear weapon underground.
On Tuesday, Rafael Grossi, the director general of the I.A.E.A., told Fox News that negotiations were underway over how the inspectors could resume operations in the country.
“Now the first team of I.A.E.A. inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart,” he said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that the inspectors were visiting Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant.
“Decisions have now been made regarding the replacement of the fuel at the Bushehr power plant, which must be carried out under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors,” he said, adding that any future cooperation would have to work within the framework of a new Iranian law.
Under the law, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, which shapes the country’s security and foreign policy, can decide on new parameters for cooperation.
Granting re-entry to U.N. watchdogs was one of the three demands European officials made of Iran to avoid imposing a snapback provision, which allows countries to restore sanctions that were in place before the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment was reached.
Iran has argued that the right to impose snapback provisions was abrogated by Washington when it withdrew from the deal in 2018.
European diplomats said the meeting with Iranian deputy foreign ministers in Geneva on Tuesday did not result in substantive change from Iran, raising the likelihood the Europeans may set off the process to reimpose sanctions as early as Thursday or Friday.
That would begin with a 30-day period before the sanctions resume — a month for further negotiation that is likely to become more serious as Iran and its allies try to suspend snapback provisions for several months, if not forever.
Steven Erlanger and Sanam Mahoozi contributed reporting.
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