The deputy head of the UN nuclear watchdog was set to arrive in Tehran on Monday for the first visit since Iran suspended co-operation with the body last month, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said no inspections were planned.
"Our talks with the Agency tomorrow will focus on a new co-operation framework ... Until we reach an agreement on a new framework, co-operation will not begin," he told reporters on Sunday. "No inspections or visits" of nuclear sites were planned, he added.
Tehran ended co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the 12-day war with Israel which also saw US strikes on its nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
Iran blamed the agency for failing to condemn the US and Israeli strikes. Tehran also said the IAEA had provided Israel with the pretext to start a war after a report accused Tehran of hiding enriched uranium. After the war ended, a bill was passed in Iran's parliament restricting Tehran's co-operation with the watchdog.
The bill, which has now become law, stipulates that any future inspection of Iran's nuclear sites by the IAEA must receive approval by Tehran's Supreme National Security Council.
The IAEA has called for inspections to resume after the attacks.
"On the one hand, there is growing opposition to Iran-IAEA cooperation among hardliners in Iran," Rahman Ghahremanpour, an independent Middle East researcher based in Tehran, told The National.
"On the other hand, Iran is worried about the negative consequences of stopping cooperation with IAEA - it may be seen as a serious sign of Iran's attempt to withdraw from NPT," he added.
Iran is trying to "devise a new framework or modality of cooperation" with the watchdog, said Mr Ghahremanpour.
Israel's surprise war derailed nuclear talks between Iran and the US which had begun in April. Mr Araghchi recently said Iran had "received messages" from the US side on the resumption of talks, and on Sunday, he said that "nothing has been finalised" on that matter.
Last month, Iranian diplomats met envoys from Germany, Britain and France – the first nuclear talks since the war with Israel. The European countries, also known as the E3, threatened to initiate a "snapback mechanism" that would reinstate UN sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has warned it might withdraw from the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty if sanctions were reimposed.
