Iran says exchange of proposals does not signal agreement

Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of succumbing to European political pressure in its latest report and warned that Tehran would adjust its nuclear steps in response.

“The IAEA report was drafted under the influence and pressure of certain European countries,” the ministry’s spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a press briefing.

“It does not befit an international body tasked with overseeing peaceful nuclear activity to be placed under such pressure,” he added.

“Iran is monitoring Western conduct through the agency and will calibrate its next steps accordingly.”

Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, accused the United States of deceiving Iran prior to the 1979 revolution by proposing a nuclear fuel consortium that ultimately excluded Tehran after securing its investment.

“This is exactly what the Americans told Iran before the revolution—they said, do not enter the nuclear fuel cycle,” Eslami said, according to Tasnim News.

“They proposed forming a consortium, and it was established after they took a billion dollars from the Shah. It was based in France, and as soon as it was formed, they said non-European countries cannot be members.”

The Iranian daily Kayhan, overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s appointee Hossein Shariatmadari, wrote on Monday that the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency goes beyond routine oversight and may serve as a political tool for Western pressure.

“One of the most important but underexamined aspects of the IAEA’s recent report is that it appears to go beyond technical or monitoring purposes,” the paper wrote.

Kayhan said the document was “crafted as a prelude to initiating the snapback mechanism by the Europeans,” referring to the process for restoring UN sanctions on Iran.

The White House last week ordered a freeze on new sanctions activity toward Iran, stalling what was once President Trump’s flagship maximum pressure campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the Journal, the directive was issued by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and relayed to top officials at the National Security Council and Treasury Department. It was later shared with the State Department and Middle East-focused personnel across the administration.

Iran sanctions now overlap with broader US foreign policy—particularly trade with China, where more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports are headed, the report said.

According to the report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued the order last week, halting measures that had been part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing "maximum pressure" campaign.

The directive was passed to senior officials at the National Security Council, the Treasury Department, and the State Department, the report said.

While the White House did not deny the sanctions pause, deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to the Journal: “Any new decisions with regard to sanctions will be announced by the White House or relevant agencies within the administration.”

The report said that Trump officials view the move as a temporary slowdown aimed at reviewing potential sanctions more carefully amid sensitive nuclear negotiations, and that it was overinterpreted somewhere along the chain.

Others expressed concern that key policymakers have been out of the loop and surprised by the sweeping pause.