In a significant development on July 3, Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, directed his country to halt all collaborative endeavours with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This decision was a direct response to the bombardment of three substantial Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States, occurring in the midst of an ongoing aerial conflict between Iran and Israel.
According to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the future discourse with the IAEA will be of a highly intricate and technical nature. This statement came prior to the first visit from the nuclear overseer since the Iranian capital decided to sever connections with the entity a month ago. The relationship between the two parties started to frizzle out after a relentless air offensive initiated by Israel and the US amid June.
The hostile campaign from the skies targeted key nuclear infrastructures of Iran, which augmented the tension in the region. On June 12, the governing body of the IAEA stated that Iran had defied its commitments to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Interestingly, this revelation surfaced just a day before the air assault from Israel over Iran, which ignited the warfare.
However, the IAEA kept its silence over the visit of the agency’s assistant chief, offering no details on whether there would be checks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Speculation is in the air about a potential encounter with Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, said Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, though he also hinted at the complexity of the forthcoming technical negotiations.
Baghaei took a swipe at the IAEA’s handling of the matter during the June conflict with Israel. He condemned the lack of a firm response from the agency when peaceful Iranian facilities under 24-hour surveillance had been targeted. He expressed his disappointment at the IAEA’s failure to exhibit a judicious and rational reaction, and neglecting to condemn the acts as needed.
It was reported by Aragchi that the nature of collaboration with the agency, which would now necessitate endorsement from Iran’s apex security authority, the Supreme National Security Council, would be going through a transformation phase. This evolution in collaboration would primarily focus on re-establishing the framework on how the IAEA and Iran interact with each other.
The impending decision is projected to have a substantial impact on the potential of inspectors to keep track of Tehran’s nuclear program. The program had been controversially refining uranium to near weapon-grade levels under recent circumstances. The new directive from President Masoud Pezeshkian to halt any kind of partnership with the IAEA came shortly after the US raid on the country’s nuclear sites.
The destructive aerial battle between Israel and Iran, initiated by the destruction of significant Iranian nuclear premises by the latter, led to a tragic loss of approximately 1,100 lives. Among the casualties were several high-ranking military officers. Israel, on the other hand, was not spared from this conflict either. Iran’s counterattacks resulted in 28 fatalities within Israeli borders.
Iran has occasionally decided to limit the inspection rights of the IAEA as a negotiation tactic when engaging with Western nations. Despite the tense situation, the timeline for the resumption of negotiations over its nuclear program between Tehran and Washington remains hazy. A pertinent question is how soon these discussions can recommence considering the elevated tensions.
Both the US intelligence organizations and the IAEA had jointly concluded that Iran had last maintained an organized nuclear weapons project in the year 2003. However, the country was found to be refining uranium up to 60% purity. This figure is just a brief, technical move away from the weapon-grade threshold, which is a concentration of uranium-235 around 90%.
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