On Thursday, November 20, Iran announced that it was withdrawing from an agreement to resume international inspections of its nuclear facilities. The decision came just hours after the UN’s nuclear watchdog demanded that Tehran clarify the state of its enriched-uranium stockpiles and the status of sites that Israel struck in June.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has had no access to Iranian nuclear sites since Israel launched a 12-day military operation that the United States briefly joined. The strikes inflicted substantial damage on the country’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
President Trump said at the time that Iran’s uranium-enrichment program had been “destroyed” during the short conflict. But regional officials and independent experts caution that the attack likely deepened Iran’s interest in covertly pursuing a nuclear weapon.
In recent weeks, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has noted that while there are no signs of active enrichment, several facilities show renewed activity. Low-enriched uranium is used for civilian energy production, whereas highly enriched material can form the basis of a nuclear weapon.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is purely peaceful. But in June, even before the Israeli strikes, the IAEA adopted a resolution finding Tehran in breach of its nonproliferation commitments. Iranian officials said the agency’s decision provided political cover for Israel’s actions, and they have refused to admit inspectors ever since.
In July, Tehran formally ended all cooperation with the UN’s nuclear monitoring body.
In the autumn, there was a brief hope of breaking the deadlock: in September, the sides met in Cairo and agreed to resume inspections. Even then, however, Iranian officials insisted that visiting the bombed sites would be “unsafe”.
That momentum quickly evaporated: in October, European states moved to reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The inspections never took place.
On November 20, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a resolution demanding that Iran “without delay” provide information on its enrichment activities and grant access to facilities. Tehran responded by repudiating the Cairo arrangement.
“This understanding is no longer in effect and should be considered terminated,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a message to the IAEA, quoted by the semi-official Fars agency.

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Regional analysts and government officials warn that if inspections are not restored and no assurances emerge regarding the state of Iran’s nuclear program, the conflict between Israel and Iran could reignite.
Some experts believe Iran is continuing work on a new enrichment facility known as Peakex Mountain. Tehran is not allowing international inspectors access to that site or to other suspected nuclear locations, aside from those it has formally declared.
Last month, the 2015 agreement that limited Iran’s enrichment program expired, and there is still no sign of any effort to replace it.
French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavre said on Thursday that European countries still hope to hold talks with Iranian officials. But any deal is unlikely without Washington’s involvement: in June, when Iran came under attack, it was engaged in nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.

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Iranian officials say they will not discuss the nuclear program with the Trump administration without guarantees against further attacks. They are also demanding compensation for the damage caused by the airstrikes. U.S. officials have rejected those terms.
Meanwhile, the fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium remains unclear. Tehran claims the material was either destroyed or buried under rubble after the June bombings.
But as Mr Grossi said in an interview with the Financial Times last week, the IAEA believes most of the stockpile survived the war. Without inspections, he noted, its current condition will remain unknown.