Iran’s Mohammad Qalibaf Rejects Expanding IAEA Access to Bombed Nuclear Facilities

Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Qalibaf dismissed reports that Tehran would expand nuclear inspections access, telling state television on July 1 that IAEA inspectors will not be granted access to bombed or damaged nuclear facilities “under any circumstances.”

Qalibaf said access would remain restricted to just two locations, the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Tehran research reactor, under laws ratified by Iranian parliament and the Supreme National Security Council.

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In parallel, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Qaribabadi said part of the $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar would be made available to Tehran in the form of goods, after talks in Doha on July 1.

Qaribabadi said the decision was made with officials from the Qatari Central Bank, and that “based on the declared needs of our country, the necessary goods would be purchased and made available to Iran.”

Iran and Oman moved forward with plans to collect payments for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz despite U.S. objections, with Oman’s proposal described as voluntary service fees while Iran insisted the payments would be obligatory.

The New York Times framework, as cited by Marine Insight, was presented as a joint approach to manage the waterway rather than allowing Iran to introduce its own payment system, and it would mark a major change from decades of free passage.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the proposal during a visit to Bahrain, saying “We need to get back to what the straits looked like before this conflict.”

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also warned that Tehran would move ahead on its own if no joint framework is agreed, while Mehdi Mohammadi said the label given to the payments does not matter, adding “There is no free service anywhere in the world.”

As indirect technical talks continued in Doha between US and Iranian officials, US Vice President JD Vance said the negotiations “are going well,” while also warning that the nuclear issue would be addressed.

Vance told reporters that “obviously, we're worried about the nuclear issue, we're going to start talking about that,” and he linked any refusal to inspections or renewed attacks on commercial vessels to “a lot of options on the table.”

In parallel, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf told Iranian state television that “We are engaged in dialogue, but if they refuse to implement what has been agreed through dialogue, we are prepared for war.”

The same reporting described how the Strait of Hormuz remained a key sticking point, with the interim deal allowing ships to pass uncharged for 60 days while Iran insisted it must control routes and later charge fees for passage.