IAEA Heads to Washington for Talks on Iran Monitoring Impasse

International Atomic Energy Agency officials are scheduled to travel to Washington next week for consultations with the U.S. government on strengthening oversight of Iran’s nuclear program, according to diplomats familiar with the plans. The visit follows the agency’s inability to secure Iranian consent to fully resume on-site monitoring, leaving inspectors without a clear accounting of Tehran’s stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels. Diplomats say gaps in surveillance data have grown, heightening concerns over the size and purity of the material Iran is believed to possess. Talks in Washington are expected to focus on alternative verification measures and potential diplomatic steps to re-establish full monitoring inside Iran, the diplomats said. Neither the IAEA nor the U.S. State Department has publicly detailed the agenda, but the agency’s leadership has warned that the current information shortfall undermines its ability to assure the international community of the program’s peaceful nature.