Iran’s president says US’s attack is to blame for halting IAEA supervision

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran remains open to talks on international supervision of its nuclear program but blamed recent US airstrikes for disrupting inspections and damaging key nuclear infrastructure.

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Pezeshkian rejected accusations that Iran is evading oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Caliber.Az reports.

“We have never been the party that has run away from verification. We stand ready to have these supervisions," he said. 

However, he noted that the US strikes on nuclear facilities had “severely damaged” equipment and installations, leaving Iranian authorities without access to many of the affected sites.

"We don’t have any  access to them. We can not see, and unless this access is going to be black there again, we have to wait for it and see what happens and how much it has been damaged. So that we can for the supervision," he said. 

Pezeshkian also expressed mistrust toward the IAEA, accusing the agency of indirectly enabling attacks on Iran.

“Their last report gave an excuse to the Israeli regime and prepared the ground for their unlawful and unauthorized attack against our nuclear facilities,” he said, criticising the IAEA for failing to condemn the strikes or take steps to prevent them.

The IAEA, tasked with monitoring Iran’s compliance under the NPT, has faced challenges since 2018, including restricted access to sites and undeclared nuclear activities at locations like Fordow and Natanz. 

Iran’s suspension of IAEA cooperation in June 2025 followed Israeli airstrikes on June 13, targeting nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and US strikes on June 21, which used bunker-buster bombs. Iran reported 606–974 deaths from these attacks, per its Health Ministry and Human Rights Activists News Agency, prompting Tehran to limit IAEA inspections and threaten NPT withdrawal, citing violations of its sovereignty.

By Sabina Mammadli