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Iran declared Wednesday that international nuclear inspectors would be barred from sites damaged in recent strikes, while separately signaling progress on unlocking billions in frozen assets, as a sweeping memorandum of understanding with Washington continued to reshape the two countries' fraught relationship.
The flurry of announcements from senior Iranian officials came less than two weeks after the Islamabad memorandum of understanding entered into force on June 18, following electronic signatures by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and US President Donald Trump.
The accord, brokered by Pakistan, lays out a framework for ending hostilities on multiple fronts, addressing the nuclear file, sanctions relief, the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and broader regional security arrangements.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in televised remarks that nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would receive no access to bombed or damaged sites, citing both parliamentary legislation and a corresponding resolution from the country's Supreme National Security Council.
"Under this law, no access whatsoever will be granted to sites that have been bombed and damaged," Ghalibaf said.
He specified that IAEA inspectors would be permitted entry only to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor, and that Tehran would not grant any access beyond what its Supreme National Security Council had explicitly authorized.
The IAEA, headquartered in Vienna, serves as the United Nations' primary nuclear watchdog and is tasked with verifying that member states' nuclear activities remain within agreed limits.
The agency's inspectors have long played a central role in international efforts to monitor Iran's nuclear program.
In a separate development, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs and chief negotiator, Kazem Gharibabadi, said that discussions held in Doha with Qatari officials had produced an agreement to direct part of the initial $6 billion in frozen assets toward the purchase of goods.
"Based on our country's declared needs, the purchase of needed goods would be carried out and made available to Iran," Gharibabadi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Gharibabadi declined to characterize the arrangement as a formal agreement with Washington. His comments followed talks in Doha, where an Iranian delegation met with Qatari and Pakistani mediators to follow up on implementation of the Islamabad memorandum.
The three sides also agreed to establish an urgent communication channel to formally document and track progress under the accord.
Last week, Trump said Iran was facing food shortages and indicated Washington would use Iranian frozen funds to purchase American agricultural products, including wheat, soybeans and corn, framing the move as opening a new export market for US farmers.
Gharibabadi also raised what Iran considers US violations of commitments under the memorandum's first clause, specifically those relating to ending the war in Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a sharp warning Wednesday, saying any threat against the Iranian people or leadership "will receive an immediate powerful response." Writing on X, Araghchi said Trump "has committed the US to muzzling its pets in Tel Aviv," adding that if Israel were to disregard American direction, "Iran will school them."
Araghchi posted the warning alongside what appeared to be a news report quoting Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz as saying Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was "marked for death."
The ceasefire framework that took effect June 18 explicitly includes Lebanon among the fronts on which hostilities are to cease, a provision Iran indicated it views as binding on both Washington and its allies in the region.
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