TEHRAN — Iran has denied a claim by US Vice President JD Vance that inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog will be given access to its nuclear sites that were bombed during the war with Israel and the United States last year.
Following negotiations in Switzerland, Vance said discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could be happening “as soon as today”.
But Iran’s foreign ministry told state media that Tehran had made “no new commitments” on nuclear inspections.
“We have not had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities damaged by the US and Zionist military aggression,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
In June last year, a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which the US later joined, saw Washington bomb three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Iran said Natanz was again hit in the most recent war with the US and Israel, but Israel said it was “not aware of a strike”.
The Iranian denial came as the US temporarily waived sanctions, allowing Iran to sell oil in US dollars for the first time in decades.
The 60-day sanctions waiver issued by the US Treasury on Monday dismantles central pillars of Washington’s long-running embargo, which has historically choked off Tehran’s economy.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that in exchange for the 60-day waiver, Tehran had committed to keeping the vital Strait of Hormuz open and allowing IAEA nuclear inspectors back into the country.
Speaking in Switzerland on Monday morning, Vance was asked by reporters when nuclear inspectors would be returning to Iran.
He said he expected the process to start “at a minimum this week”, but conversations with inspectors “could happen as soon as today”.
In a joint statement released on Monday, mediators Qatar and Pakistan said that after the first round of talks in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, the US and Iran had agreed to “a roadmap toward reaching a final deal within 60 days”.
Vance described the talks as having laid a “very good foundation”.
US President Donald Trump also posted on social media that Iran “will agree to have Major Weapons Inspections”.
However, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Baqaei said maintained that any engagement with UN inspectors would take place under existing procedures set by Iran’s Parliament and the Supreme National Security Council.
The IAEA did not immediately comment.
Iran suspended IAEA access to sites bombed by Israel and the US during the 12-day war last summer.
The following month, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it had pulled out its remaining inspectors from the country.
In 2015, Iran and six world powers – the US, China, France, Russia, Germany and the UK – struck a deal allowing IAEA inspections of nuclear sites in Iran.
During Trump’s first term, in 2018, he withdrew the US from this agreement, arguing it was a “bad deal”.
Source: Saudi Gazette