Agencies - Kitabat:
Tehran accused the UN agency on Saturday of politicizing its reports, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that it was unable to visit Iranian facilities to verify nuclear materials.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, in statements to Iranian media carried by Reuters, said that the agency should avoid turning technical reports into "political pressure tools" if it wishes to contribute to a diplomatic solution.
He added that the agency's loss of ability to monitor some facilities resulted from attacks, not from a lack of cooperation by Iran, accusing the agency of exploiting the consequences of US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to create "ambiguity" about Tehran's nuclear program.
This came after the IAEA, in a confidential report scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of its Board of Governors next week, warned that the inability to visit facilities to verify nuclear materials in Iran raises "proliferation concerns," calling on Tehran to cooperate "constructively," according to AFP last Thursday.
The agency also acknowledged that military attacks on Iran's facilities and nuclear sites have caused an unprecedented situation, but stressed that conducting verification activities without delay is of utmost importance. It considered that its inability "to access for verification of previously declared stocks of high-enriched uranium and low-enriched uranium for nearly a year, a delay far exceeding what is stipulated in standard safeguards practices, is a matter of proliferation concern."
A diplomatic source explained that the IAEA has not observed "any movements" at key nuclear sites such as Isfahan and Natanz since the war began.
The UN agency has been unable to visit these nuclear sites since the war launched by Israel on Iran in June 2025, in which the United States participated by striking three main nuclear sites. These facilities were also targeted in the latest war launched by Washington and Tel Aviv on Tehran starting February 28.
