Archive December 24, 2025

The United Nations nuclear watchdog must first define “post-war conditions” governing access to sites hit by military attacks, Iran has rejected calls to allow inspections of nuclear facilities bombed during attacks by the United States in June.

Tehran’s head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday that it would not permit inspections of US facilities until the IAEA established a set of guidelines for such visits, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

The agency should make those changes public so that we can take appropriate action, Eslami said.

Tehran has since formally informed the IAEA of its position, insisting that laws must be “defined and codified” in the event of a military attack on nuclear facilities that are protected by international law.

The US military used bunker-buster munitions to bomb three significant Iranian nuclear installations during a 12-day conflict with Israel in June. The wave of attacks claimed the lives of more than 430 people and injured thousands more, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health.

The strikes came shortly after Israel’s surprise attack on Iran, which claimed the lives of numerous Iranian civilians, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, and targeted several sites connected to nuclear programme.

Tehran denies attempting to detonate a nuclear weapon.

Despite this, it is widely believed that Israel has an unproven nuclear arsenal.

IAEA inspectors stationed in Iran were fired after the attacks, accusing the organization of failing to condemn them.

“installations containing dangerous forces, such as dams, dykes, and nuclear electrical generating stations,” according to the Geneva Conventions.

Eslami argued that if the IAEA explicitly stated that it would support or tolerate military action against nuclear sites that are protected, it should do so.

However, he said, “If such attacks are not permitted, they must be condemned, and once condemned, the post-war conditions must be clarified,” adding that Iran would not accept “political and psychological pressure” to impose inspections prior to that taking place.

No legal effect of nuclear agreement

Eslami also criticized a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday regarding nuclear non-proliferation, calling the statements Tasnim described as completely unprofessional and illegal.

The legality of Resolution 2231, which approved the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was a hot button issue.

Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, informed the UNSC that Resolution 2231 “ceased to have any legal effect or operative mandate.”

Representatives from China and Russia echoed his position.

According to the state-run news agency IRNA, Iravani said Iran remained committed to “principled diplomacy and genuine negotiations.” He also held France, the United Kingdom, and the US accountable for taking steps to restore trust.

Morgan Ortagus, a US representative at the meeting, claimed Iran would only be willing to engage in direct and meaningful dialogue.

She said, “First and foremost, Iran cannot be an enrichment country.”

Despite receiving severe medical advice, two other prisoners in the United Kingdom have recently put their protests on hold because they have serious health issues. Four prisoners in the United Kingdom are still on a hunger strike.

The hunger strikers Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha, and Lewie Chiaramello, who are still unaccounted for, were being treated for the third time on Saturday after starting to refuse food, according to the protest group Prisoners For Palestine.

The group stated on Tuesday that “the remaining four will continue to refuse food in response to [their] demands.”

The hunger strikers want immediate release, a fair trial, and for the UK to outlaw Palestine Action, which it declared a “terror” group in July. The pro-Palestinian group claims that the UK government is a toxic perpetrator of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

They demand that all Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons producer, websites be shut down, as well as putting an end to alleged censorship of their communication.

The statement stated that the remaining strikers were adding to their list of demands, including that Muraisi be transferred from a prison in northern England to Bronzefield prison in Surrey, where she has connections in London, and that they should have access to the same courses and activities as sentenced prisoners.

According to Prisoners For Palestine, Chiaramello is experiencing confusion, dizziness, and weakness while engaging in an intermittent hunger strike that he refuses to eat every other day because he is diabetic.

The prisoners are accused of participating in a 2012 break-in that involved the spray-painting of two military aircraft at an Elbit-run UK factory near Bristol and at an Oxfordshire Royal Air Force base. They deny the charges brought against them, including violent disorder and burglary.

“Excruciating pain”

Two of their fellow prisoners announced a pause to their strike on Friday after suffering grave health effects, and the pledge to continue with the strike.

Qesser Zuhrah, a 20-year-old woman who Prisoners For Palestine claimed she had halted her hunger strike after 48 days of abstaining from it, was complaining about “continuous excruciating pain in her abdomen.”

After staff at the prison refused her an ambulance for more than 18 hours last week, leading to protests outside the jail before she was taken to the hospital, she decided to pause the hunger strike.

Zuhrah, whose lawyers claimed she had lost 13 percent of her body weight, made a statement informing the government that she intended to resume the hunger strike. “We will undoubtedly return to battle you with our empty stomachs in the new year,” she warned the government.

After the hunger strike forced them to use a wheelchair due to severe weakness and brain fog, another prisoner, Amu Gib, resumed eating.

MP claims that the government is “cruel.”

Zuhrah and Gib were praised by Sultana, who now runs the Your Party, for “blank the cruelty of a Labour government wanting them to die.”

She stated in a statement that they “refused to give them that… and will resume in the new year,” and that they had demanded immediate bail for the organization.

She stated that the four remaining strikers were “at a critical point,” refusing to eat until their demands are met, UK complicity ends, and Palestine is free.