Nuclear Inspections Dispute Clouds 60-Day Race to Finalize US-Iran War-Ending Deal
President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday for his first visit to Pakistan since the United States and Israel launched their joint military offensive against Iran on Feb. 28, as diplomatic efforts to finalize a permanent war-ending deal entered their decisive phase amid growing tensions over nuclear inspections.
Officials from the United States and Iran were locked in a public dispute Tuesday over whether Tehran had agreed to allow United Nations inspectors to view bombed Iranian nuclear sites, a disagreement that threatens to derail negotiations as a 60-day window to reach a comprehensive agreement rapidly narrows, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.
Inspections Dispute Clouds Nuclear Talks
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday that United Nations inspectors were not scheduled to examine the nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year, directly contradicting statements made a day earlier by U.S. Vice President JD Vance. The conflicting accounts exposed a fundamental gap between the two sides even as technical teams worked to finalize details of the framework deal brokered in Switzerland.
President Donald Trump responded with a social media post asserting that Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections extending far into the future. “Without this concession there would be no further negotiations!” Trump wrote. The International Atomic Energy Agency has not issued any public comment on its possible role, though the agency has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war in 2025 without gaining access to bombed enrichment facilities.
The dispute represents the most serious friction yet in the negotiations, which began after the two sides signed a preliminary framework agreement on June 15 as part of the G7 summit in Evian, France. The preliminary deal ended three months of conflict that claimed 13 U.S. service members and disrupted global oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passes.
Seafarer Evacuation Offers Diplomatic Opening
Amid the standoff over inspections, the International Maritime Organization announced Tuesday that a plan is underway to evacuate more than 11,000 stranded seafarers through the Strait of Hormuz. The operation, coordinated with Iran, Oman, all coastal states in the region, the United States, and the maritime industry, marks a tangible step toward normalizing commercial shipping in the Gulf.
“We have secured the necessary safety guarantees and have thoroughly verified the conditions for safe navigation to support these operations,” said IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez in a statement confirming the evacuation framework. His announcement followed days of negotiations that produced what officials described as a functioning de-confliction mechanism for the strait.
Ship traffic data from analytics firm Kpler showed 39 vessels crossed through the strait Monday, after roughly 92 crossings between Friday and Sunday. Prior to the war, approximately 100 ships made the transit daily. The gradual increase in traffic signaled cautious optimism among shipping companies, though analysts warned that the presence of floating mines and armed drone patrols continues to make insurers and crews wary.
Lebanon Ceasefire Tested as Deadline Nears
The broader diplomatic architecture faced fresh strain Tuesday when Israeli soldiers opened fire in southern Lebanon, killing two people. The incident broke two days of relative calm following a ceasefire brokered on Saturday and marked the first killings since that agreement took effect. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia whose hostilities with Israel triggered the wider regional conflict, did not claim any retaliatory attacks.
Iran has insisted that a full truce in Lebanon form part of any comprehensive settlement. Israel, which occupies a sliver of Lebanese territory and maintains that it must retain the right to strike militants launching attacks into northern Israel, offered no immediate comment on the incident. Any renewal of heavy fighting could threaten the entire negotiating timeline, officials and mediators said.
Ahead of his meetings in Islamabad, Pezeshkian cautioned that the effectiveness of the ongoing talks depended on “full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.” His delegation, which included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was scheduled to hold a joint news conference with Pakistani leaders following initial discussions on regional peace and economic cooperation.
60-Day Clock and What Comes Next
The talks in Switzerland produced a framework that created specific negotiation working groups covering sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction, and monitoring, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who led portions of the technical discussions, said the two sides also established a contact mechanism to manage ship movements through Hormuz and the situation in Lebanon.
G7 leaders meeting in Evian endorsed the preliminary deal and threw their weight behind a multinational maritime initiative to ensure safe passage through the strait. French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the summit, called the agreement “a step toward regional stability” while acknowledging that hard questions remained about verification and enforcement.
Analysts cautioned that the 60-day window was ambitious given the scope of outstanding issues. The inspections question — who sees what, when, and under whose authority — sits at the center of those complications. Without a credible monitoring mechanism, sanctions relief and the unfreezing of Iranian financial assets become nearly impossible to structure, negotiators and independent experts said.
What to watch: IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi is expected to issue a statement on his agency’s potential role within days. A second round of technical talks is slated to convene in Oman before the end of the month, according to officials familiar with the schedule. Whether the inspections dispute is resolved — or deepens — before then will determine whether the Geneva signing ceremony planned for later this summer proceeds as scheduled.
