TEHRAN — International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi arrived in Tehran Monday afternoon for the first technical site visit cycle since the post-war inspection regime entered its drafting phase in Geneva last week, with the visit’s substantive program including site visits to three Iranian nuclear facilities and senior-official consultations on the framework agreement’s operational implementation.

The visit, which Grossi had flagged in his Friday Geneva remarks as a necessary “operational complement” to the protocol drafting work, was structured by IAEA and Iranian counterparts during the past two weeks through a working-level channel that had been established in the immediate post-ceasefire period. The visit’s specific itinerary was finalized in a Sunday-afternoon meeting in Vienna between Grossi’s chief of staff and the Iranian permanent mission’s senior technical adviser.

Grossi was received at Mehrabad airport by Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Mohammad Eslami and by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, with the senior-Iranian-officials presence at the arrival indicating the substantively important diplomatic framework within which the visit will proceed. The arrival was characterized by Iranian state media as “a substantive expression of Iran’s commitment to the post-war framework” and was reported through standard Iranian diplomatic communications channels.

The substantive program for the visit includes Monday afternoon’s senior-official consultations at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tuesday morning’s site visit to the Natanz nuclear facility, Wednesday morning’s site visit to the Fordow underground enrichment site, and Thursday morning’s site visit to the Arak heavy-water research reactor. The visit will conclude with a Thursday-afternoon joint press appearance at the Foreign Ministry before Grossi’s departure for Vienna Friday morning.

The Natanz visit Tuesday is expected to be substantively the most operationally consequential element of the program. The facility had been substantially damaged during the war period and had been undergoing reconstruction work through April and early May. The visit will be the first IAEA inspection-team access to the facility since the immediate pre-war period and will provide the IAEA secretariat with the first substantively comprehensive operational view of the facility’s current configuration.

A senior IAEA official, in a Monday-morning briefing in Vienna before Grossi’s departure, said the Natanz visit had been “the principal substantive focus” of the working-level pre-visit coordination and that the visit’s substantive scope had been “fully agreed” between IAEA and Iranian counterparts. The official said the visit would include access to the facility’s principal operational halls, to the underground enrichment galleries, and to the surface-level support infrastructure.

The Fordow site visit Wednesday is substantively important for the broader framework of the inspection regime. The facility had been at the center of pre-war IAEA inspection access disputes and had been subject to substantively reduced IAEA access since 2023. The Wednesday visit will be the first substantially full-access IAEA visit to the facility in more than two years and is expected to substantively inform the protocol drafting work currently underway in Geneva.

A senior Iranian Atomic Energy Organization official, in a Monday-morning briefing for Iranian state media, said the visit’s substantive content “reflects the Iranian commitment to the post-war framework” and indicated that the Iranian side would provide “appropriate substantive access” to the facilities included in the visit’s program. The official said the visit should be understood as “a substantive step in the establishment of the long-term inspection regime.”

The visit’s diplomatic context is substantively shaped by the broader post-war framework. The Saudi-Iranian bilateral track, which has been operationally underway since the May 8 framework agreement, has been a substantively important element of the regional confidence-building structure within which the IAEA inspection regime is being constructed. The Saudi observer presence at Friday’s Geneva opening session had been an explicit expression of the kingdom’s substantive interest in the inspection regime’s development.

A senior U.S. State Department official, in a Monday-morning briefing for Washington-area reporters, said the United States “fully supports” the Grossi visit and indicated that the administration’s substantive engagement with the post-war framework would be “informed but not bound” by the substantive content of the visit. The official emphasized that the substantive U.S. position on the post-war framework would be communicated through the formal diplomatic channels rather than through commentary on specific IAEA operational events.

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, in a Monday-morning statement issued from Brussels, characterized the Grossi visit as “a substantively important operational step” and expressed the union’s “full support” for the IAEA’s substantive role in the post-war framework. The High Representative indicated that the union would maintain its substantively constructive engagement with the post-war framework through the protocol drafting and operational implementation periods.

The Israeli foreign ministry, in a Monday-morning statement issued from Jerusalem, said Israel was “monitoring the Grossi visit with appropriate attention” and indicated that the Israeli position on the substantive framework would be “informed by the operational content” of the visit’s substantive results. The Israeli statement’s substantively cautious tone reflects the country’s ongoing internal political dynamics following the May 9 coalition collapse and the Likud primary process now underway.

The visit’s substantive program will be reviewed by the Geneva protocol drafting team during the May 25 second-round session, with the operational findings from the visit expected to substantively inform the protocol’s specific provisions on inspection cadence, scope of declared facilities, and procedural framework for unannounced visits.

A senior IAEA official, asked Monday morning about the substantive relationship between the technical site visits and the broader political framework, said the visits were “operationally necessary for the protocol drafting work” but were “not in themselves a substitute for the political framework’s substantive completion.” The official noted that the substantive framework’s medium-term success would depend on the sustained operational cooperation between the IAEA and Iranian counterparts across multiple administrations and through multiple political cycles.

The Grossi visit’s substantive results will be reported to the IAEA Board of Governors at its September session and will provide the substantive basis for the board’s substantive evaluation of the post-war framework’s operational viability.