Iranʼs Guardian Council approves suspension of cooperation with IAEA

The Guardian Council of the Constitution — an influential body in Iran — has approved a bill suspending the stateʼs cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

This is reported by The Times of Israel.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the document suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog "binding".

“The bill that was approved by parliament and approved today by the Guardian Council is binding on us, and there is no doubt about its implementation. From now on, our relations and cooperation with [the IAEA] will take a new form,” the official said on the national broadcaster.

The Iranian parliament voted in favor of the decision the other day. According to media reports, the project was supported by more than 200 deputies. According to Alireza Salimi, a member of the parliamentʼs presidium, according to general regulations, IAEA employees will not be allowed to enter Iran to inspect nuclear facilities unless they guarantee their safety and protect the "peaceful nuclear activities of the country".

Also, visits by IAEA staff must be approved by Iranʼs National Security Council, which has not yet approved the project.

Iranʼs nuclear technology is under the control of the IAEA, as Iran is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Until the latest escalation in the Middle East, IAEA inspectors regularly visited Iran to carry out inspections and, in particular, recorded an increase in the level of uranium enrichment at its nuclear facilities. After the Israeli attack, the IAEA also assessed the damage caused to Iranian nuclear facilities.

Whatʼs happening in the Middle East?

On the night of June 13, Israel attacked the center of Iranʼs nuclear, missile, and military infrastructure. After that, Iran declared that it would not participate in negotiations with the United States on its nuclear program, scheduled for June 15. On the evening of June 13, Iran responded by attacking Israel with ballistic missiles. The sides began to exchange blows.

On the night of June 22, the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities in the cities of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. American B-2 stealth bombers dropped six GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on Iranʼs Fordow nuclear facility, two GBU-57 bombs on the Natanz nuclear facility, and a U.S. Navy submarine launched a salvo of 30 Tomahawk missiles, targeting the Natanz facility and another in Isfahan. Details of the operation can be found here.

Trump claimed that all three sites had been “totally and irreversibly destroyed.” The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine, had previously said that the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had been “severely damaged”, but he stopped short of saying that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “destroyed”.

And on June 23, Iran launched several missiles at American military bases in the Middle East.

The NYT newspaper wrote that Iran could have been removing enriched uranium from nuclear facilities before the US attack. Given Donald Trump’s repeated threats to resort to military action, the Iranians could have removed 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. This uranium was stored inside a nuclear complex near Isfahan.

The Iranians also fortified the Fordow plant to protect what could not be transported. Satellite images show 16 trucks at the entrance. However, it is not known what exactly was removed from the facility or whether anything was removed at all. In fact, the Iranians could only have evacuated some of the materials, the publication noted.

The US Vice President J.D. Vance and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi confirmed that it was still unclear where Iran’s enriched uranium was being stored. In an interview with CNN on June 22, Grossi added that “Iran is not hiding that they have been protecting this material”.

Later that day, he was asked in a report whether he meant that the uranium stockpile had been moved. He replied, “Yes.”

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