Return of UN nuclear inspectors to Iran met with protests by MPs

Some Iranian officials say readmission breaches law passed after Israel and the US attacked the country in June

by Patrick Wintour

The partial return of UN inspectors to Iran for the first time since Israel and the US attacked Iran’s nuclear sites has been met with protests by officials in Tehran, who claim the strict preconditions they set have been breached. Some even described the return as criminal.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, tried to quell the backlash by saying the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would not be visiting any of the bombed sites and that discussions about these were still to be had.

He said the return had been endorsed by Iran’s supreme national security council and that the inspectors would be allowed to visit the Bushehr nuclear site to oversee refuelling only – a role required by the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, confirmed on Wednesday that inspectors were “back in Iran”.

Iranian MPs complained that the readmission breached the terms of a law passed in July that banned the UN watchdog’s return on a broad basis in the wake of the Israeli attack on Iran. The representative from the city of Khomeini Shahr, Mohammad Taqi Naqdali, led the protests, saying the breach was a criminal act.

“We have approved a law in the assembly that any type of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will be suspended unless the territorial integrity, security of nuclear scientists, and inherent rights of Iran are fully ensured, and this is confirmed by the report of the Atomic Energy Organization [of Iran] and the supreme national security council,” he said.

“If anyone acts against this resolution, they are guilty and will be sentenced to a sixth-degree punishment in circumstances where there is no more severe punishment.”

The protests show the dilemma the government faces in balancing a surge in nationalist sentiment against the risk of further UN sanctions or even new Israeli attacks.

The UK, France and Germany have long threatened to trigger a “snapback” of former sanctions when a 10-year-old nuclear deal with Iran expires on 18 October.

The three preconditions Europe has set out to avoid this are: Iran identifying the whereabouts of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium; the country permitting the full return of the IAEA inspectors who left at the start of the Israeli-US bombing campaign in June; and Tehran reopening talks with the US on its future nuclear programme.

If this highly limited return of UN inspectors is enough to see off the return of sanctions, it will represent a bare-minimum concession by Iran.

In a draft motion to be put to the UN security council, Russia is proposing to postpone the snapback for a further six months, giving Europe a further option if it feels Iran is serious about reopening diplomatic talks.

If the Europeans do move ahead with a return to the sanctions lifted in 2015, the move cannot be vetoed by their fellow security council members Russian and China and would risk further inflaming relations between the west and Iran.

The extra sanctions would not only reimpose the right to ban suspicious Iranian shipping but also place a broader obligation on states sympathetic to Iran – such as China – to enforce the sanctions, since they have been mandated by the UN.

Referring to Israel’s attacks on Iran, Grossi said: “If you want to prevent a repeat of what we saw in June, these [inspection] activities must be resumed.”

He added: “We have been in continuous talks with Iran to create conditions for the return. It is not easy, because as you can imagine some in Iran see the presence of international inspectors as detrimental to their national security, and some do not. So the question is what arrangements are needed so that we can return and do our job.”

Grossi is currently under police protection after threats believed to have come from Iran.