Iran reveals ‘new protocol’ with UN nuclear watchdog

The Cradle, July 28, 2025 —

The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that an IAEA official will visit Iran in the coming days, weeks after Tehran formally suspended cooperation with the agency.

A representative of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Iran in the next two weeks, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on 28 July, announcing that a “new protocol” will be reached with the watchdog. 

His comments come weeks after Iran’s parliament suspended cooperation with the agency over its failure to properly condemn Israel’s 12-day war on the country. Tehran has also accused the IAEA of paving the way for the start of the war. 

“Iran is still a party to the safeguards agreements. In light of the binding resolution of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, we are going to define a new protocol with the IAEA to see how we can continue cooperation. Probably within the next two weeks, an IAEA official will visit Iran, and we are going to discuss these technical aspects during that meeting,” Baghaei said on Monday. 

Baghaei also slammed European powers for threatening to renew sanctions on Iran by triggering the ‘snap-back mechanism’ of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, which EU states have continued to hold Tehran to despite the collapse of the agreement following Washington’s withdrawal from it in 2018. 

Iranian and EU officials recently held a round of nuclear talks in Istanbul. 

“During the talks with Europe, no issues were raised except the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions. It is not unnatural for European countries to spread a narrative. The European narrative is not Iran’s narrative. The European parties do not have the authority to use the mechanism known as the snapback mechanism, and Iran has announced its positions,” the spokesman added. 

“Given the gross violation of the JCPOA commitments by European countries, it is questionable whether such countries can consider themselves parties committed to the JCPOA,” he added. 

Israel started its war on Iran on 13 June in the middle of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington. The US joined the war on 23 June with a bunker-buster attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. 

The Israeli war was launched just a day after the IAEA board passed a resolution accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement. The resolution was based on an IAEA report in late May, which claimed that Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN nuclear watchdog at three locations decades ago.

As a result, Iran has barred IAEA chief Rafael Grossi from entering the country, and has signaled potential legal action against him. Iran recently rejected a request by Grossi to visit the damaged nuclear sites, citing the request as “malign in intent.”

In early July, Tehran formally suspended cooperation with the IAEA. Days later, an IAEA inspection team left the country. 

The Iranian government had previously accused the agency of passing along sensitive information obtained from inspections over to Israel. 

Baghaei’s announcement comes as Israel has been publicly threatening to resume the campaign against Iran. US President Donald Trump has also said that Washington will strike the Islamic Republic again “if necessary.”

Tehran has vowed to continue moving forward with its nuclear program, particularly uranium enrichment.