Iran bars IAEA from bombed nuclear sites until a new protocol exists

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, told state media that the International Atomic Energy Agency cannot inspect nuclear sites damaged in United States and Israeli strikes until it drafts, approves and issues a protocol for inspecting facilities that have been attacked. Undamaged sites, he said, remain open under existing safeguards. Parliament’s law, not the Agency’s preference, governs the damaged ones.

Eslami spoke on Wednesday. He said Iran still considers itself in a state of war and that the security of the struck plants does not allow ordinary inspections. He accused Washington and Tel Aviv of pressing the IAEA to visit so they can measure the damage their own attacks caused, and he criticised the Agency for not condemning those strikes on sites it had previously monitored.

What the Agency cannot see

The IAEA lost access to the damaged plants during the 2026 war. It has since been allowed back to some working facilities, including the Bushehr power plant and the Tehran Research Reactor. It has not been able to verify the condition of the bombed sites or the nuclear material that was last declared there.

A June interim memorandum between Tehran and Washington was meant to open a path to a broader settlement. Its 60-day window ran out in August without a final deal. Rafael Grossi has said a “very strong system of verification” is required if the nuclear file is to be closed. Eslami’s condition — a new protocol first — puts that verification behind a rule that does not yet exist.

Qatar’s prime minister was in Tehran on Thursday on a separate mediation track. The inspection dispute is now one of the obstacles that track has to walk around.