IAEA Warns that Iran Not Forthcoming on Past Nuclear Activities

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi (on screen) speaks online during hearing on current international developments of concern by European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence in Brussels, Belgium, 10 May 2022. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi (on screen) speaks online during hearing on current international developments of concern by European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence in Brussels, Belgium, 10 May 2022. (EPA)
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IAEA Warns that Iran Not Forthcoming on Past Nuclear Activities

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi (on screen) speaks online during hearing on current international developments of concern by European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence in Brussels, Belgium, 10 May 2022. (EPA)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi (on screen) speaks online during hearing on current international developments of concern by European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence in Brussels, Belgium, 10 May 2022. (EPA)

The head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog said on Tuesday Iran was dragging its feet on information about uranium particles found at old undeclared sites in the country, raising the prospect of a clash on the issue in June.

Talks to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran's insistence that Washington remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite security force, from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

While not technically part of the nuclear deal, one issue causing tension and distrust between Tehran and the West had been Iran's demand for the closure of the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation into uranium particles found at three apparently old but undeclared sites.

Those sites suggest that Iran had nuclear material there that it did not declare to the agency.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog had agreed a three-month plan on March 5 for a series of exchanges after which IAEA chief Rafael Grossi "will aim to report his conclusion by the June 2022 (IAEA) Board of Governors" meeting, which begins on June 6.

However, Western diplomats have said there is little sign that Tehran has given satisfactory answers to the watchdog.

Speaking to the EU parliament, Grossi said he remained extremely concerned by the situation and had told Iran that he found it difficult to imagine that the nuclear deal could be finalized if the IAEA had serious doubts about things that it should have known about.

"I am not trying to pass an alarmist message that we are at a dead end but the situation does not look very good. Iran has not been forthcoming in the type of information we need from them," Grossi told European Parliament committees via webstream.

The EU's Iran nuclear talks coordinator Enrique Mora arrives in Tehran on Tuesday in what he has described as the last bullet to save the deal, which also includes Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

Western officials have largely lost hope that it can be resurrected, sources familiar with the matter said, forcing them to weigh how to limit Iran's atomic program even as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has divided the big powers.

"We are, of course, still hopeful that some agreement is going to be reached within a reasonable time frame, although we have to recognize the fact that the window of opportunity could be closed any anytime," Grossi said.



Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Iran Says it Would Resume Nuclear Talks with US if Guaranteed No Further Attacks

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia June 23, 2025. Sputnik/Sergei Karpukhin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that his country would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the US if there were assurances of no more attacks against it, state media reported.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a speech to Tehran-based foreign diplomats that Iran has always been ready and will be ready in the future for talks about its nuclear program, but, “assurance should be provided that in case of a resumption of talks, the trend will not lead to war.”

Referring to the 12-day Israeli bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites, and the US strike on June 22, Araghchi said that if the US and others wish to resume talks with Iran, "first of all, there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated. The attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution based on negotiations.”

Following the strikes, Iran suspended cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, which led to the departure of inspectors.

Araghchi said that under Iranian law, the country will answer the agency’s request for cooperation "case by case,” based on Iran’s interests. He also said any inspection by the agency should be done based on Iran's “security” concerns as well as the safety of the inspectors. “The risk of proliferation of radioactive ingredients and an explosion of ammunition that remains from the war in the attacked nuclear sites is serious,” he said.

"The risk of spreading radioactive materials and the risk of exploding leftover munitions ... are serious," he added.

"For us, IAEA inspectors approaching nuclear sites has both a security aspect ... and the safety of the inspectors themselves is a matter that must be examined."

He also reiterated Iran's position on the need to continue enriching uranium on its soil. US President Donald Trump has insisted that cannot happen.

Israel claims it acted because Tehran was within reach of a nuclear weapon. US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said the US airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction.