QOM, Iran — An International Atomic Energy Agency technical team conducted a full-access inspection of the Fordow underground enrichment facility Wednesday morning, the first such visit in more than two years and the most operationally significant single event of the post-war inspection framework’s early implementation.

The visit, scheduled to run from 8 a.m. local time through late afternoon, gave the inspection team access to the facility’s underground galleries, its surface support infrastructure, and the principal enrichment hall whose configuration had been at the center of pre-war IAEA access disputes. Director-General Rafael Grossi accompanied the team for the first three hours of the visit before departing for a parallel senior-officials meeting at the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran.

Fordow’s significance as a verification target reflects both its physical configuration — built into a mountain near the city of Qom, with overhead protection that makes external observation difficult — and its operational history. The facility had been declared to the IAEA in 2009 but had been the subject of recurring access disputes through the late 2010s and early 2020s. IAEA access had been substantially curtailed since the 2023 agreement breakdown, with the agency relying on satellite observation and infrequent transit-style visits to maintain even partial situational awareness.

A senior IAEA official, in a Wednesday-morning briefing from the facility’s entrance, said the team’s access scope matched what had been pre-coordinated through the working-level channel established in early May. The team’s access includes the underground gallery’s principal cascade halls, the enrichment-monitoring equipment installations, and the surface-level uranium-hexafluoride handling infrastructure. Environmental sampling protocols are being executed at designated locations across the facility.

The pre-coordination of the visit had been more detailed than the parallel pre-coordination for Tuesday’s Natanz visit, reflecting the longer access gap at Fordow and the resulting need to refresh the IAEA’s baseline understanding of the facility’s current configuration. A senior Atomic Energy Organization of Iran official, in a briefing to Iranian state media Wednesday morning, said the Iranian side had provided the IAEA team with what he characterized as “full operational transparency” within the parameters of the agreed access scope.

The Iranian declaration filed Tuesday morning included a section specifically addressing the Fordow facility’s current configuration and the changes from the facility’s pre-war declared state. A senior IAEA official, in the Wednesday briefing, said the declaration’s Fordow section had been “reviewed in advance of the visit” and that the inspection team’s principal task at the facility was to verify the declaration’s accuracy against direct observation.

Western nuclear-verification experts, contacted Wednesday morning for background commentary, said the Fordow visit’s significance extends well beyond the facility itself. A senior researcher at a major U.S. policy institution noted that the framework’s credibility depends substantially on Iran’s willingness to permit full-access visits to facilities that had historically been most operationally sensitive. The Fordow visit, the researcher said, “is the test case that the broader framework either passes or doesn’t.”

The visit’s protocol included a Wednesday afternoon working session at the facility, during which the inspection team is reviewing operational records covering the period since the most recent IAEA visit. The records review is expected to inform the team’s substantive write-up of the visit, which will feed into the Geneva protocol drafting team’s work in the May 25 second round.

A senior State Department official, in a Wednesday-morning Washington statement, called the Fordow access “a meaningful operational signal” and said the United States would withhold further commentary until the IAEA secretariat reports its initial findings. The official noted that the U.S. position on the broader framework will be informed by, but not dictated by, the specific results of individual site visits.

Israeli foreign-ministry response to the Fordow visit, delivered through a Wednesday-morning Jerusalem statement, was measured. The statement said Israel was monitoring the visit “with appropriate attention” and would withhold substantive commentary pending the IAEA’s reporting. The Israeli posture continues to reflect the domestic political context of the ongoing Likud primary process and the broader uncertainty about the post-war coalition framework’s direction.

Russian and Chinese foreign-ministry statements Wednesday morning characterized the Fordow visit as consistent with both governments’ expectations for the post-war framework. Both governments have positioned themselves as supportive of the IAEA’s role in operationalizing the framework, with that position serving their broader diplomatic interests on the Security Council resolution and the related multilateral architecture.

The visit’s Thursday follow-up will be the inspection of the Arak heavy-water research reactor, a facility whose post-war configuration has been less politically contested than Fordow but whose technical assessment will inform the protocol’s provisions on research-reactor reporting and inspection cadence. Grossi will deliver a joint press appearance with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi Thursday afternoon before departing for Vienna Friday morning.

A senior AEOI official, asked Wednesday afternoon about the operational tone of the inspection week, characterized the four-day program as proceeding within parameters Iran finds acceptable. The official emphasized that Iran’s willingness to permit full-access visits should not be read as openness to further expansion of inspection authorities beyond what the framework will formally establish through the protocol drafting process.

The week’s results will be reported to the Geneva protocol drafting team in advance of the second round, with the substantive operational findings expected to shape the protocol’s specific provisions on inspection cadence, scope of declared facilities, and the procedural framework for unannounced visits. The protocol’s target completion ahead of the IAEA Board of Governors’ September session remains on schedule.

The Fordow visit’s conclusion Wednesday evening will close the week’s most operationally consequential single event of the post-war framework’s early implementation.