WASHINGTON — President Trump told reporters Tuesday that nuclear inspectors will be on the ground in Iran “at the appropriate time” and the officials in Tehran were “wrong” to say there would be no scrutiny of their enrichment sites by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency.
“There’s no rush, but they’ll be on the ground at the appropriate time,” Trump said. “They told us inside, and we have it down — 100% inspections.”
The director of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency also said in an interview Tuesday that his agency will be inspecting Iran’s enrichment facilities — despite officials in Tehran denying that they’d agreed to let the experts scrutinize their sites.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Tokyo-based outlet NHK that the inspections were part of the negotiated truce between the US and Iran.
“We think that the sooner the better, especially since this agreement has a time frame of 60 days, so we will have to be working without losing much time,” Grossi said.
“If Iran wishes to invite the United States or other observers, this is another matter,” he added, affirming the IAEA’s independence as a nuclear monitor. “We do not foresee that somebody needs to help us or control us.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei had denied earlier Tuesday that IAEA inspectors would be allowed to visit the sites.
A Memorandum of Understanding, signed by US President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian last Wednesday, stipulates that the Islamic Republic will “not procure or develop nuclear weapons.”
Iran will also dilute what remains of its highly enriched uranium “under the supervision of the IAEA,” per the document.
“We know what they agreed to. I don’t know why they have to say the things they say, whatever their internal or domestic politics is,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I guess they’ll navigate it, but we know what they agreed to do, and now they’ll either do it or they won’t. And if they do, the process moves forward, and if they don’t, the president will have some decisions to make.”
Trump has said the US will resume bombing unless Iran sticks to their end of the deal, which firstly calls for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to oil exports in exchange for removing a US-imposed naval blockade and waiving sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports.
A US official added: “As President Trump and Vice President Vance have made clear, the Iranians have agreed to robust IAEA inspections of the remains of their nuclear weapons program, which was totally obliterated by Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.”
“The Iranian regime will say what they have to say for their domestic audience, so the mainstream media should always treat what they say with skepticism,” the official said. “The fact remains that we’ve reached a major milestone toward permanently ending Iran’s nuclear program.”
“If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!” Trump protested on his Truth Social, noting that Iran “has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!). This will insure ‘Nuclear Honesty.’”
The president later told reporters, “If they [the Iranians] were right, I’d cancel the meetings right now.”
Grossi noted that his agency has yet to receive confirmation from the Iranians where that material is located but is in independent talks with regime officials.
Three nuclear facilities — Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan — had their uranium obliterated by US bombings in Operation Midnight Hammer during June 2025, halting the IAEA from conducting any inspections.
The US also struck Isfahan on March 30 of this year as part of Operation Epic Fury.
Three months later, the IAEA’s Board of Governors adopted a resolution that demanded Iran reveal where its enriched uranium is hidden and let inspectors into the country to analyze it.
Asher Katz, cofounder of the Austin-based defense company Traysar, told The Post that the Iranians’ underground structures housing the nuclear material are “not just a tactic” but their “whole strategy for how they fought this war.”
He highlighted how Trump was aware of this reality when he tweeted in January 2020: “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!”
With “miles of underground systems,” Iran was able to prevent US and Israeli strikes from completely decimating the facilities because of how deep it is kept, Katz added.
