Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday said his country is committed to fulfilling its obligations to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, one day after Tehran enacted legislation restricting cooperation with U.N. nuke inspectors.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hit back at Germany’s foreign office in an X post on Thursday, asserting that Iran is dedicated to the treaty and that this week’s restrictions on the International Atomic Energy Agency were for security reasons.
“Iran remains committed to the NPT and its Safeguards Agreement,” he wrote. “In accordance with the new legislation by [Parliament], sparked by the unlawful attacks against our nuclear facilities by Israel and the U.S., our cooperation with IAEA will be channeled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons.”
He added that Germany’s insistence that Iran abandon its uranium enrichment program has destroyed Berlin’s credibility.
“The explicit German support for the bombing of Iran has obliterated the notion that the German regime harbors anything but malice towards Iranians,” he said.
Mr. Araghchi was responding to a post from the German Foreign Office, which condemned Iran’s new law restricting access to IAEA investigators. Germany and other Western nations said the law “eliminates any possibility of international oversight.”
The law, signed by President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, says any future inspection of Iran’s nuclear sites must be approved by the Islamic republic’s Supreme National Security Council.
The law exemplifies the Tehran-IAEA rift, which has intensified following Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear sites last month.
The IAEA said this week that it’s aware of the new law and is awaiting further details from Tehran. It’s unclear whether any IAEA investigators are in Iran or if they left before last month’s Iran-Israel war.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet with Mr. Araghchi in Oslo next week to restart nuclear talks, according to reports Thursday.
The Axios news site, citing unnamed sources, said details are not yet final and neither country has publicly confirmed the meeting, but renewed talks would be a notable diplomatic breakthrough after President Trump ordered military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last month.
In an interview with NBC News, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said the Islamic republic has no plans to retaliate for the U.S. strikes, but that Iran also has no intentions of abandoning its nuclear development program.
He said Iran had “already responded” to the U.S. attack on its three nuclear enrichment facilities late last month by launching a missile attack on U.S. facilities in the region.
“We have already responded to that,” he said when asked if Iran planned to strike the U.S. “As long as there is no active aggression perpetrated by the United States against us, we’ll not respond again.”
The missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was blocked by air defense systems after Iran provided advance notice of the strike.
