Iran suspends co-operation with UN nuclear watchdog

Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes hit its most-important nuclear facilities, likely further limiting the ability of inspectors to track Tehran's program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

The order by President Masoud Pezeshkian included no timetables or details about what that suspension would entail.

Iranian state television announced President Masoud Pezeshkian's order, which followed a law passed by Iran's parliament to suspend that co-operation. The bill already received the approval of Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, on Thursday, and likely the support of the country's Supreme National Security Council, which Pezeshkian chairs.

There were no timetables or details given about what the suspension would entail.

"The government is mandated to immediately suspend all co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency under the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its related Safeguards Agreement," state television quoted the bill as saying. "This suspension will remain in effect until certain conditions are met, including the guaranteed security of nuclear facilities and scientists."

It wasn't immediately clear what that would mean for the Vienna-based IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog. The agency has long monitored Iran's nuclear program and said that it was waiting for an official communication from Iran on what the suspension meant.

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

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

Saar urged European nations that were part of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran 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 is out of compliance with it.

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

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to allow the IAEA even greater access to its nuclear program. That included permanently installing cameras and sensors at nuclear sites. Those cameras, inside of metal housings sprayed with a special blue paint that shows any attempt to tamper with it, took still images of sensitive sites.

Other devices, known as online enrichment monitors, measured the uranium enrichment level at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

The IAEA also regularly sent inspectors into Iranian sites to conduct surveys, sometimes collecting environmental samples with cotton clothes and swabs that would be tested at IAEA labs back in Austria. Others monitor Iranian sites via satellite images.  

U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first term in 2018, unilaterally withdrew Washington from the accord, insisting it wasn't tough enough and didn't address Iran's missile program or its support for militant groups in the wider Middle East.