Iran suspends cooperation with IAEA, ‘no plans’ to resume talks

The move could see the nuclear watchdog’s inspectors barred from Tehran’s nuclear sites and allow Iran to develop an atomic bomb with no oversight.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran has no plans to resume nuclear talks.

Iran has passed a bill suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, in an ominous move that would bar International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors from the country’s nuclear sites and allow Tehran to develop an atomic bomb with no oversight.

The bill was passed hours after Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran had no plans to resume nuclear talks with the United States after the end of its 12 day war with Israel.

Donald Trump on Thursday said Washington would hold discussions with Tehrannext week over its nuclear program, with special envoy Steve Witkoff expressing hope “for a comprehensive peace agreement”.

But on Friday, Abbas Araghchi shut down what he said was “speculation” that Tehran would come to the table and said the IAEA bill was “binding.”

“The bill that was approved by (parliament) and has been approved by the Guardian Council today … is binding on us and there is no doubt about its implementation,” he told state television. “From now on, our relationship and cooperation with the (IAEA) will take a new form.”

He told the country’s Channel 13 TV that Tehran wasn’t certain renewed nuclear talks were in the country’s interest, after the US targeted three major uranium enrichment facilities last weekend.

“I would like to state clearly that no agreement, arrangement or conversation has been made to start new negotiations,” he said. “No plan has been set yet to start negotiations.”

Mr Araghchi went on to repeat Tehran’s claims that the US attack – dubbed ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ – had seriously damaged the nuclear sites.

“A detailed assessment of the damage is being carried out by experts from the Atomic Energy Organisation [of Iran],” he said.

“Now, the discussion of demanding damages and the necessity of providing them has been placed as one of the important issues on the country’s diplomatic agenda.

“These damages are serious, and expert studies and political decision-making are underway at the same time.”

Earlier, Iran’s Supreme Leader appeared to contradict his ministers’ claims, hailing what he described as Iran’s “victory” over Israel, and insisting Washington had been dealt a humiliating “slap”.

In his first public appearance in a week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised address: “The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration.

The strikes, he insisted, had done “nothing significant” to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Donald Trump insisted that key facilities, including the underground Fordow uranium enrichment site, had been “obliterated” by American B-2 bombers.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also went before reporters to set out new details about military tactics and explosives to bolster the White House’s argument that US attacks had destroyed the facilities, but avoided answering how far back the bombing had set Tehran’s atomic program.

In a rare Pentagon news briefing, Mr Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to shift the debate from whether the nuclear targets were “obliterated,” as Mr Trump said, to what they portrayed as the heroism of the strikes as well as the extensive research and preparation that went into carrying them out.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Mr Hegseth said in an often combative session with reporters.

Asked repeatedly whether any of the enriched uranium was moved to other locations before the US attack, Mr Hegseth acknowledged that the Pentagon was “looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where. ”He added, “I’m not aware of any intelligence that says things were not where they were supposed to be” or that they were moved.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes were “genuinely effective” but the “worst-case scenario” would be if Tehran now exits the global non-proliferation treaty.

“The worst would be that the consequence of this is Iran’s exit from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and therefore, ultimately, a drift and a collective weakening,” Mr Macron told reporters.