Iran vetting body okays bill suspending cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog

The Iranian body tasked with vetting legislation approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday, citing recent US and Israeli strikes.

Iranian lawmakers voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday, a day after a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Israel that saw Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Since the start of the war on June 13, Iranian officials have sharply criticised the International Atomic Energy Agency for failing to condemn the strikes.

Iran has also criticised the watchdog for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing it of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations.

Iranian officials say the censure motion was “one of the main excuses” for the Israeli and US attacks.

“The government is required to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA to ensure full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Guardian Council spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif told the official IRNA news agency.

He said the move was prompted by the “attacks… by the Zionist regime and the United States against peaceful nuclear facilities.”

The bill, which will now be submitted to President Masoud Pezeshkian for final ratification, would allow Iran “to benefit from all the entitlements specified under… the Non-Proliferation Treaty especially with regard to uranium enrichment,” Nazif said.

Key Tehran ally Moscow had earlier spoken out against the move to suspend coooperation with the IAEA.

“We are interested in continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, so that everybody respects Iran’s repeated statements that Iran does not have and will not have plans to develop a nuclear weapon,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X that cooperation with the watchdog was “not possible” at this time until security at Iran’s nuclear facilities “is ensured.”

Israel launched a major bombing campaign on June 13 that targeted Iranian nuclear and military facilities and killed top scientists and commanders.

On Sunday, Israel’s ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on Tuesday.