Iran ready to cooperate with IAEA, but in a new form

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the country is ready to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but in a "new form" and confirmed its commitment to a diplomatic solution to the dispute over its nuclear program.

Iran, which holds the IAEA partly responsible for the June attacks by Israel and the US on its nuclear facilities, legally suspended cooperation with the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, in early July.

"In accordance with this law, all our cooperation with the Agency will now be managed by the Supreme National Security Council of Iran," Aragchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran.

Iran "remains ready to build trust through diplomacy, but before that our colleagues need to convince us that they want diplomacy, and not that it be used to mask other goals," the minister added.

The Israeli and American attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities were intended to prevent the country from building an atomic bomb, a claim Tehran has consistently denied. The damage from the bombing has been assessed differently.

In early July, the US called Iran's decision to suspend cooperation with the IAEA "unacceptable".

The Israel-Iran war has halted negotiations between Tehran and Washington that began in April to regulate Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran.

In early July, a team of IAEA inspectors left Iran and returned to the organization's headquarters in Vienna, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reiterated the "key importance" of talks with Iran on modalities for the rapid resumption of "essential monitoring and verification activities" of the country's nuclear program.