Iran contradicts Vance, says no plan to allow nuclear inspections

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday contradicted claims that Iran agreed to let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency resume oversight of its nuclear facilities. Iran cut off relations with the nuclear watchdog in 2025 after it released a report saying that the country’s government broke nuclear safeguards agreements and was enriching uranium in undeclared locations. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said Monday that Iran agreed during talks in Obbürgen, Switzerland, to allow the nuclear inspectors back into the country, but Iran rejected that statement.

What else did Iranian leaders say? Government spokesman Esmail Baqaei said the Iranian government had not met with the nuclear watchdog’s director and that it did not plan to let inspectors visit its damaged nuclear sites. Iran was a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and would stay committed to its safeguards agreements, he said, according to state-run Fars News.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators would discuss nuclear procedures along with other issues, such as sanctions, during the 60-day framework set up in the memorandum of understanding the two countries recently signed, Baqaei said. Negotiations on those subjects depended on U.S. implementation of some provisions in the memorandum, he said.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the end of the first phase of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland.