In a post on the social media platform X, the IAEA stated: “The IAEA inspection team, after staying in Tehran during the recent military conflict, safely left Iran today to return to the Agency’s headquarters in Vienna.”
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively that, following Tehran’s suspension of cooperation with the IAEA, the agency was withdrawing its inspection teams from Iran. According to the report, this decision was made amid security concerns, and the inspectors were set to return to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
Lawrence Norman, a Wall Street Journal reporter, claimed on his X account that the IAEA inspectors left Iran on Friday through the northwestern border, entering Armenia. According to Al Jazeera, the IAEA also confirmed on Friday that its inspectors had left Iran and were en route back to the Agency’s headquarters in Vienna.
Rafael Grossi, the IAEA Director General, without addressing the agency’s role or its recent report that led to a resolution against Iran in the Board of Governors and subsequently the aggression by the Israeli regime and the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran, stated after the inspectors’ departure that the “critical” next step is to begin negotiations with Iran to allow inspectors to return and resume “essential monitoring and verification of Iran’s nuclear program.”
