“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a post on X.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said it was important to engage with Iran to resume “indispensable monitoring and verification activities as soon as possible,” according to the statement.
On Wednesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian ratified a new law suspending cooperation with the IAEA, following a parliamentary vote the previous week. The legislation bars IAEA inspectors from entering the country unless Tehran receives guarantees for the safety of its nuclear facilities and personnel.
Iran’s nuclear program was the primary target of a 12-day conflict last month that saw unprecedented Israeli and American strikes on its nuclear infrastructure and sharply raised tensions between Tehran and the nuclear watchdog.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the IAEA of acting as “a political instrument” and blamed it for inflaming tensions between Iran and Israel.
Pezeshkian criticized Grossi, accusing him of bias. He also accused the agency of issuing “inaccurate reports” and failing to condemn the US and Israeli attacks that he said violated international law and caused the deaths of several Iranian scientists and military commanders.
A ceasefire was brokered by US President Donald Trump, who claimed Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.”
