Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) and head of the Iranian regime’s negotiating team, claimed that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will not be allowed access to nuclear facilities that were bombed by the United States.
The Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites were targeted in U.S. and Israeli strikes against the Iranian regime last year and this year.
Since last year’s 12-day war, the Iranian regime has denied the IAEA access to enrichment sites, where it is believed the regime has stored enough highly enriched uranium to produce as many as 10 nuclear weapons if it decided to move rapidly toward building an atomic bomb.
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Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “With the cooperation of the Iranian regime and by entering Iran, we will collect the enriched uranium and then transfer all of it to the United States.”
Earlier, Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said during a press conference in Japan that an agreement exists and that, in order to implement it, the IAEA must have access to the sites and conduct inspections.
Access to these sites has become one of the main points of contention in the recent negotiations.
In a televised interview broadcast Wednesday evening on the Iranian regime’s state television, Ghalibaf said: “At present, they only have the right of access to two facilities: the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor. Access has been limited to these two sites, and we remain committed to that.”
Ghalibaf added: “The Majlis passed a law, and the Supreme National Security Council has also adopted a resolution on the matter. Under this law, no access whatsoever will be granted to sites that have been bombed and damaged.”
Before the U.S. strikes on the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities during the 12-day war, the IAEA announced that the regime possessed more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%.
In the final days of the 12-day war, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Iran’s enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. He later announced that the facilities had been destroyed and that the enriched uranium had been buried beneath the rubble.
In April, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that a large portion of the Iranian regime’s enriched uranium was likely still located at the Isfahan nuclear complex.
One month later, CNN reported that the Iranian regime had deliberately destroyed the tunnels leading to its high-enriched uranium storage facilities and had mined their entrances.
Five sources familiar with U.S. intelligence told CNN that in recent weeks, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to seize Iran’s stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium through military action, the Iranian regime has significantly intensified efforts to block access to the material.
