US-Iran deal: IAEA says technical work on nuclear verification can begin

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that technical groundwork for a new US-Iran nuclear agreement can now begin, following the signing of an initial memorandum between Washington and Tehran aimed at resolving a years-long standoff over Iran’s atomic programme.

IAEA chief offers to sit down with both sides

Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s director general, called the signing of the preliminary accord a welcome development and offered to facilitate concrete next steps. He said the agency was ready “to sit down” with both parties to work through the technical dimensions of any final deal, including the thorny question of how Iran’s nuclear activities would actually be monitored and verified. That’s been the sticking point in virtually every round of talks for the past decade.

Verification is everything. Without a credible inspection regime, no deal holds.

The IAEA currently has 149 inspectors operating across member states, but its access inside Iran has been sharply curtailed since 2021, when Tehran removed surveillance cameras and scaled back cooperation with the agency. Getting that access restored will be central to any workable agreement.

What the memorandum actually says

Details of the memorandum remain limited, and neither the US nor Iranian governments have released the full text. But officials familiar with the document described it as a framework for further negotiations rather than a binding commitment. It doesn’t resolve the core disputes — enrichment levels, stockpile limits, sanctions relief — but it does signal that both sides are willing to stay at the table.

Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, well above the 3.67 percent cap set under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and dangerously close to the 90 percent threshold needed for weapons-grade material. The IAEA confirmed in its most recent quarterly report that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium had grown to levels with no credible civilian justification.

Washington’s cautious response

The US State Department welcomed Grossi’s offer but stopped short of committing to a timeline. A senior official said American negotiators were “encouraged by the progress” but that any final agreement would need to meet strict verification standards. So it’s far from a done deal. Still, the tone from both capitals has shifted noticeably in recent weeks, and that alone marks a departure from the open hostility that defined relations as recently as early this year.

What comes next

Grossi said he hoped to convene a first technical meeting within weeks, not months. The IAEA would focus initially on restoring camera access at key Iranian facilities, including the Fordow and Natanz enrichment sites. And while the diplomatic road ahead is long, Thursday’s statement from Vienna was the clearest indication yet that the machinery of a potential deal is starting to turn. Whether it produces anything lasting depends on whether both governments can hold their domestic political coalitions together long enough to see it through.