Iran’s president has ordered the country to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after American and Israeli airstrikes hit some of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities.
The order by President Masoud Pezeshkian marks a sharp escalation in the fallout from the 12-day Iran-Israel war and the U.S. strikes that followed. According to the evidence packet, the suspension has no timetable or detailed implementation plan, but it is still likely to make it harder for inspectors to track Tehran’s nuclear activities.
Iran’s state television said the decision followed a law passed by parliament, approved by the Guardian Council and likely backed by the Supreme National Security Council, which Pezeshkian chairs. The bill states that the government is required to immediately suspend cooperation with the IAEA under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement until security conditions are met.
That wording matters because it suggests the suspension is not merely symbolic. It ties Iran’s cooperation to the security of its nuclear facilities and scientists, making the duration of the break dependent on a political judgment rather than a fixed calendar date.
The IAEA, based in Vienna, has long monitored Iran’s program and has been central to international efforts to keep the country’s nuclear work under scrutiny. The new decision raises immediate questions about how inspectors will continue their work, especially after years in which Iran has already limited access at various moments as a negotiating tactic.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also signaled that diplomacy is not necessarily over, saying in a CBS News interview that the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. But he said negotiations with the United States would not restart as quickly as President Donald Trump had suggested.
The move drew immediate criticism from Israel and the United States. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the suspension a renunciation of international nuclear obligations, while U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce described it as unacceptable at a moment when Iran should choose a path of peace and prosperity.
The decision stops short of the most severe outcome some experts had feared, namely a full end to cooperation with the IAEA and a formal withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Even so, it pushes Iran further away from international oversight at a time when concern over its enrichment program is already high.
Before the war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 percent, a level short of weapons grade but far beyond the limit set in the 2015 nuclear deal. With the latest suspension, the technical and diplomatic barriers to monitoring that program are both higher.
For now, the message from Tehran is clear: the strikes have changed the political environment around the nuclear file, and the country is willing to respond by making inspection and oversight harder, not easier.
