Iran says cooperation deal with UN nuclear watchdog is void

AL-Monitor
Oct 20, 2025
FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (unseen), in Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi meets with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (unseen), in Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo — Mohamed Azakir

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has scrapped a cooperation deal that it signed with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA in September, its Supreme National Security Council Secretary said on Monday, according to state media.

The statement came around three weeks after Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said Tehran would scrap the agreement, which let the IAEA resume inspections of its nuclear sites, if Western powers reinstated U.N. sanctions.

Those were reinstated last month.

The confirmation will be a setback for the International Atomic Energy Agency which has been trying to rebuild cooperation with Tehran since Israel and the United States bombed the nuclear sites in June.

"The agreement has been cancelled," Larijani said while meeting with his Iraqi counterpart in Tehran, according to state media.

"Of course, if the agency has a proposal, we will review it in the secretariat," he added.

(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)