Iran's Fars News Agency reports that the doors of the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities are closed to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors until a final agreement is reached. The announcement follows months of conflicting signals from Tehran on inspection access.
Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported Friday afternoon that the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities are closed to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors until a final agreement is reached. The statement, attributed to an unnamed Iranian official, directly contradicts IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi's public assessment earlier Friday that an interim U.S.-Iran deal allows inspectors access to Iran.
As The Zioneer reported on June 24, Iran had previously rejected all IAEA access requests and warned Grossi, while a New York Times report the same day indicated inspection access had been raised in negotiations despite Tehran's public denials. The current shutdown of three major nuclear sites — including the underground Fordow enrichment facility near Qom and the Natanz enrichment complex — suggests a hardening of Iran's negotiating position. Fars is a semi-official news agency closely aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, lending weight to the assessment that this reflects official policy rather than a bargaining signal.
The IAEA has not yet confirmed the report. Inspection access has been a central sticking point in the indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, with Iran repeatedly conditioning inspections on a final deal that includes sanctions relief.
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