TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s Guardian Council on Thursday approved a parliamentary bill to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The Guardian Council, which reviews all laws for constitutional and religious compliance, gave the green light to the bill proposed by the Iranian parliament.
The bill calls for halting cooperation with the IAEA until security guarantees for Iran’s nuclear facilities are provided.
This move follows a recent parliamentary resolution to stop allowing IAEA inspectors into nuclear sites unless their safety is assured.
According to Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the International Atomic Energy Agency “refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” and had “put its international credibility up for auction”.
Qalibaf announced the formal enactment of the law compelling the government to halt all cooperation with the IAEA.
“Today, following approval by the Constitutional Council, the law suspending cooperation with the IAEA has been officially communicated,” Qalibaf stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Continued collaboration with an agency that acts as an enabler of war and aggression and serves as an executor of the inhumane interests of the illegitimate Zionist regime is impossible until we are assured of the full security of our nuclear facilities,” he added.
According to Mehr News Agency, 221 members of parliament voted in favour of the bill. No members voted against it, and only one lawmaker abstained. This shows strong political unity behind the decision to pause IAEA inspections.
Under the new bill, IAEA inspectors will not be permitted to enter Iran’s nuclear installations until Iran receives firm guarantees for their security.
Russia wants Iran-IAEA cooperation
The move comes after a US and Qatar-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel ended 12 days of war – including an intensive US military intervention that struck three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 23.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that parliament voted to suspend – but not end – cooperation with the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
He said the US had “torpedoed diplomacy” and could no longer be trusted, citing extensive damage to nuclear infrastructure. He reaffirmed Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow wanted Iran to continue its cooperation with the IAEA.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was peaceful, and both US intelligence agencies and the IAEA have concluded that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said he had already written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities.
