Iran Rules Out Return of UN Nuclear Inspectors as U.S. War Talks Stall

Iran continues to divert attempts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to access and verify the Iranian stockpile of enriched uranium and rules out any engagement with the UN’s agency’s inspectors amid the standoff in the war with the U.S.“It is more than a year since the agency lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of highly-enriched uranium,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote in a restricted report, which was circulated in Vienna on Friday and was seen by Bloomberg News.“The agency is not able to conclude that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities,” the top IAEA official said in the report.Iran has reluctantly cooperated in recent years with some of the inspections aimed at verifying its nuclear activities, but shut out any access following the U.S. and Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic in June 2025.The UN’s agency is “fully prepared to resume its safeguards activities in Iran at short notice,” its head Grossi wrote in the report, but added that Iran ruled out a return to regular monitoring “under the present circumstances.”Last week, an Iranian report to the IAEA circulated among diplomats, in which Iran argued it is not obliged to allow monitoring and verifications while under threat from U.S. attacks.In September, IAEA’s Grossi called on Iran “to engage with the Agency constructively in order to make possible the full and effective implementation of Agency safeguards in Iran and to fulfill its responsibilities under the NPT Safeguards Agreement.”The Iran nuclear issue will be on the agenda of the IAEA’s Board of Governors meeting in Vienna next week.While Iran is shutting out international monitoring of its nuclear program, the U.S. and Iran are nowhere near any deal that would ease the conflict in the Middle East and disruptions to energy supplies from the Persian Gulf.By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.comMore Top Reads From Oilprice.comFusion's Next Race Is Over Superconducting Tape, Not PlasmaGlobal Power Grid Expansion Surges 50% to Record HighPakistan Scrambles for LNG as Winter Gas Crisis Deepens