Iran Cuts Ties With IAEA, Accusing It of Enabling US Airstrikes

The Iranian parliament approved a bill Wednesday suspending its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The resolution states that weapons inspectors with the United Nations nuclear watchdog organization will not be allowed to enter the country unless it guarantees the security of Iran’s nuclear facilities and their ability to pursue peaceful nuclear activities.

Ahead of the vote, lawmakers denounced the IAEA, accusing it of enabling U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday — strikes Iran, as well as other observers of international law, have denounced as a clear violation of its sovereignty.

“The IAEA, which did not even formally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, has put its international credibility up for sale,” said Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. “For this reason, the [Atomic Energy Organization of Iran] will suspend its cooperation with the Agency until the security of its nuclear facilities is guaranteed, and Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will proceed at an even faster pace.”

In response to the resolution, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that “the return of inspectors to Iran’s nuclear facilities is a top priority.”

Independent inspectors have not yet been able to inspect the damage to the three nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan — hit by the U.S.

Following the strikes, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated.”

However, reporting by CNN and The New York Times on Tuesday, based on unnamed sources familiar with an internal assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, undercut that claim, stating that the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a matter of months.

Grossi said Monday that the airstrikes likely inflicted “very significant damage” at Fordo, but that no conclusions could be reached until independent inspectors are allowed to examine the site and account for Iran’s uranium stockpile.

The latest IAEA report issued on May 31 found “no credible indications of an ongoing, undeclared structured nuclear program” being pursued by Iran — a finding echoed by U.S. intelligence agencies.

However, the IAEA did find that Iran had significantly increased its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%, near weapons-grade, which it said was a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Despite no “imminent threat,” according to the most recent intelligence assessments, the Trump administration cited those IAEA findings to justify its attacks.

As a result, Iran’s nuclear organization has questioned the IAEA’s credibility as a neutral broker, accusing them of “deliberate inaction,” following American and Israeli strikes. It said in a statement Sunday that these strikes were carried out “with the IAEA’s silence, if not complicity.”

Some critics have argued that the IAEA’s decision to declare Iran in violation of the NPT was the result of significant U.S. arm-twisting and that the IAEA has not applied similar scrutiny to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that strikes upon its nuclear facilities violate the NPT, which grants countries an “inalienable right” to develop nuclear energy for nonmilitary purposes.

Nuclear experts warn that the U.S. strikes on Iran have undermined the credibility of the NPT, prompting some factions in Iran to call for the nation’s exit altogether.

Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, suggested Monday that U.S. attacks may only embolden Iran and other nations to violate the treaty and pursue nuclear weapons, perceiving them as necessary for their protection.

“From a nonproliferation perspective, Trump’s decision to strike Iran was a reckless, irresponsible escalation that is likely to push Iran closer to nuclear weapons in the long term,” Davenport said. “Politically, there’s greater impetus now to weaponize.”