In 2015, Iran, along with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as Germany and the European Union (EU), signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and allow more extensive international inspections in exchange for the lifting of billions of dollars in sanctions.
Iran began ignoring the deal a year after then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
In September 2023, Iran banned IAEA inspectors from monitoring its nuclear program. The IAEA’s latest report says Iran has not reconsidered the ban and that IAEA surveillance cameras remain disrupted. The agency said it has asked Iran to provide access to a centrifuge factory in the city of Isfahan so it can service its cameras, but Tehran has yet to respond.
The report also states that Iran has yet to provide answers about the origin and current location of laboratory-generated uranium particles found at two sites – Varamin and Turquzabad – that have not been declared by Tehran as potential nuclear facilities.
Iran wants to negotiate
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, opened the possibility of renegotiating the terms of the deal between Tehran and Washington over his country’s nuclear program, telling the civilian government there was “nothing wrong” in cooperating with the “enemy.”
“This does not mean that we cannot interact with the same enemy in certain situations,” Khamenei said, according to information posted on his official website. “There is nothing wrong with that, but let’s not get our hopes up.”
Meanwhile, after the election of Iran’s new president, Masud Pezeshkian, last June, the IAEA offered to send the agency’s chief to Tehran “to resume dialogue and cooperation between the agency and Iran.” While Pezeshkian agreed to meet with the chief, that has not yet happened.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to install only the most basic IR-1 centrifuges to enrich uranium. However, the IAEA report found that Iran has installed many more advanced models of centrifuges at several of its nuclear plants. More advanced centrifuge models enrich uranium at a much faster rate.
The report comes at a time of heightened tension in the Middle East as Israel continues its nearly year-long fight against Palestinian Hamas.
Iran supported Hamas throughout the war and Tehran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel in April after two Iranian generals were killed in an attack on an Iranian consular building in Syria.
Israel was suspected of carrying out the attack but did not claim responsibility for it. Iran also threatened retaliation after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024. However, Israel has not admitted responsibility for the assassination.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
Text published in the American magazine “Newsweek”. Title, lead and subtitles by the editors of “Newsweek Polska”.
