Kinshasa, October 5th, 2025 (CPA).-The Iranian government has said on Sunday that cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ‘is no longer appropriate’ with the return of UN sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear programme, international media have reported.
‘New decisions must therefore be taken and, in my opinion, the Cairo agreement is no longer appropriate in the current situation’, has declared Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs. He was referring to the agreement concluded last month between Iran and the IAEA to define the resumption of their cooperation. Iran had suspended in July all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog after Israel and the United States had bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June during a 12-day war. The Iran’s head of diplomacy has indicated that ‘the Cairo agreement can no longer serve as a basis for our cooperation with the IAEA’, adding that a “decision” on Iran’s relationship with the agency ‘will be announced’ shortly.
It is worth noting that it was on the initiative of France, the United Kingdom and Germany that the UN has reinstated its sanctions against Iran on September 28th, after lifting them ten years ago in connection with the country’s nuclear programme. Tehran has repeatedly warned that a return to sanctions would lead to a suspension of cooperation with the IAEA. It is not immediately clear whether Iran intends to break completely with the Agency. Since the return of UN sanctions, a number of Iranian politicians have been calling for an exit from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran has belonged since 1970. The NPT requires signatory states to declare and place their nuclear materials under IAEA control.
An atomic bomb for Teheran?
The Iran’s nuclear programme has long poisoned the relations with Western countries, led by the United States, which, along with Israel, the Iranian government’s sworn enemy, suspect Tehran of seeking to acquire an atomic bomb. Iran denies that it has any such military ambitions, but insists that it has the right to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes, in particular to generate electricity.
According to the IAEA, Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium to a high level (60%), close to the technical threshold of 90% needed to make an atomic bomb. In 2015, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Russia and China had concluded an agreement with Iran, providing for a framework for Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. In 2018, under President Donald Trump’s first term in office, the United States have decided to withdraw from the agreement and reinstate its own sanctions. In retaliation, Iran has freed itself from certain commitments, in particular on uranium enrichment. CPA/