Trump says Iran agreed to nuclear inspections, Tehran denies it

The White House said nuclear diplomacy was moving ahead; Tehran said it was not. Donald Trump said Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections “into infinity,” but Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei rejected that account and said there was no plan to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel last year.

The dispute deepened around a fragile U.S.-Iran framework built over weeks of talks, including a 60-day sprint of negotiations and a memorandum of understanding that was signed remotely and put into effect. Negotiators from the United States and Iran met in Switzerland, but the agreement left some of the hardest issues unresolved, including sanctions relief, nuclear monitoring and the role of Lebanon in the wider deal.

That uncertainty was made sharper by the fighting in Lebanon. Israeli strikes in the south continued even after the broader understanding took shape, and the clashes between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group forced emergency additions to the diplomacy. The White House has been trying to keep the agreement from collapsing as the Lebanon front threatens to overtake the nuclear track.

The pressure now extends beyond Iran. Teams from Israel and Lebanon were set to meet in Washington, D.C., from Tuesday through Thursday in direct talks that Reuters said were the first between the two countries since 1993. The sessions were to begin with a joint political and military meeting at the State Department and Pentagon, followed by additional military and political talks. Iran has said any Israeli forces in Lebanon would violate the U.S.-Iran understanding.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has continued pressing Tehran for fuller cooperation, access and reporting on nuclear material and safeguards, keeping the inspection issue alive even as the diplomacy shifts from one crisis to another. For now, the central question is not whether talks are continuing, but whether the public claims surrounding them can survive the battlefield realities pulling them apart.