Iran’s chief negotiator: IAEA cannot visit nuclear sites bombed by the US

The head of Iran’s negotiating team again denies that inspectors from the UN nuclear agency will be allowed access to nuclear sites bombed by the US.

According to Al Jazeera, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been leading Iran’s negotiating delegation, says on state TV that it is not true that inspectors will be allowed to access Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Ghalibaf says reports Iran has granted such access are “false” and that “IAEA inspectors do not have the right to inspect nuclear sites bombed by the US,” Al Jazeera quotes him as saying on the IRIB state broadcaster.

“Currently, inspectors only have access to two locations: Bushehr power plant and Tehran reactor,” he reportedly says.

International Atomic Energy Agency boss Rafael Grossi said Friday that “there is an agreement and to comply with that agreement, the IAEA will have to have access and inspect,” he told a press conference in Japan, without naming the specific sites in question.

Such visits have been a contentious sticking point in negotiations in recent days, with all sites speaking out publicly about the disagreements.