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Iran’s parliament has approved a plan to suspend its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and cease co-operation with the global atomic watchdog in the wake of Israeli and US attacks on its nuclear facilities.
Lawmakers backed the proposal on Wednesday in a landslide vote in which 221 out of 223 voted in favour, with one vote against and one abstention. But the plan stopped short of a full withdrawal from the treaty (NPT).
The approved proposal said: “The government must immediately implement this law and suspend all co-operation with the [International Atomic Energy Agency] under the NPT and the safeguards agreements.”
The move, which is expected to be enforced rapidly, could be reversed if Iran’s Supreme National Security Council verifies that certain conditions have been met, including “full respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran [and] security of nuclear sites and scientists . . . [and] uranium enrichment within the country”.
The IAEA had been implementing one of the world’s strictest inspection regimes in the republic after Iran signed a 2015 accord with world powers that severely restricted its nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief.
The country’s co-operation with the agency diminished significantly after US President Donald Trump abandoned the accord in 2018, but IAEA inspectors were still able to frequently visit Iran’s main sites, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. It has been unable to carry out inspections since Israel launched its war.
Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of parliament’s national security committee, said: “We remain committed to the NPT [in principle] and have assured the world that our nuclear activities are peaceful.
“However, this decision concerns only co-operation with the IAEA, meaning the installation of any safeguards cameras will be prohibited.”
The proposal will become law once it is endorsed by the Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog.
During the 12-day conflict in which Israel said it targeted Iran’s nuclear and military sites, Iranian officials and politicians accused IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi of giving Israel and the US a pretext to launch their attacks on Tehran’s nuclear programme after the agency cited concerns about Iran’s activity.
The day before Israel launched its war against the Islamic republic on June 13, the IAEA’s board of governors adopted a resolution that, for the first time in two decades, declared Iran to be in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. The resolution was drafted by the US, UK, France and Germany.
After the war erupted, Grossi repeatedly called for diplomacy to end the crisis and said armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place.
Speaking in Vienna on Wednesday, Grossi said: “My idea is to try to engage with [Tehran] as soon as possible . . . and to start looking at the modalities for that inspection to continue.”
Asked about the possibility of Iran withdrawing from the NPT, Grossi said it would be “very regrettable” and would not help anyone, “starting with Iran — this would lead to isolation”. “Hard words and emotions are perhaps normal or . . . inevitable in times of war, but we are working for diplomacy,” he said.
On Wednesday, the IAEA said Grossi had written to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday proposing a meeting. Grossi said: “Resuming co-operation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities.”
The US briefly joined the conflict over the weekend, bombing the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites. Trump claimed the sites had been “obliterated”, but US media have subsequently cited an early US intelligence assessment that the air strikes set back Iran’s nuclear progress by less than six months.
Meanwhile, the fate of more than 400kg of highly enriched uranium — which could be further enriched to produce several bombs, if Iran chose — remains unknown.
Iran has suggested the uranium was relocated before the attacks, and maintains that the bombardments did not destroy its programme.
On Wednesday, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, vowed in parliament that the Islamic republic would accelerate its nuclear programme.
“The IAEA has compromised its credibility by failing even to condemn the attacks on Iran’s nuclear installations,” Ghalibaf said. “For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran will suspend its co-operation until guarantees are made for the security of nuclear sites. Meanwhile, Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme will continue at a faster pace.”
A ceasefire between Israel and Iran took effect this week but remains fragile, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that war could resume if Iran restarted nuclear activities.
But Iranian politicians and leaders have vowed to continue with the nuclear programme.
“What’s the point of co-operating with the IAEA if we are being bombed?” said a regime insider. “IAEA inspectors were only coming to spy on Iran’s sites and provide information about our nuclear scientists and their locations to Israel so they could be targeted. This nonsense has to stop immediately.”
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