In the afternoon, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the Director-General of the IAEA, Rafael Gossi.
Later, after two hours of tete-a-tete, the Iranian foreign minister, Araghchi, and the IAEA Director-General, Grossi, signed a “new framework” that would pave the way for resuming cooperation, including “practical steps” to relaunch inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The text sets out how the UN nuclear watchdog will resume inspections after two months of interruption.
In June, Tehran suspended all interaction with the IAEA in protest at the agency's failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on the country, including nuclear facilities.
A law passed by Iran’s parliament in July banned cooperation with the agency, though inspectors briefly returned in late August to replace fuel at the Bushehr power plant.
Announcement
After signing the agreement, Abdelatty, Araghchi, and Grossi held a joint presser to announce the deal.
Speaking at the presser, the Iranian foreign ministry said “the agreement establishes a practical modalities for cooperation that reflects both Iran's exceptional security requirements and the agency’s technical requirements."
Araghchi stressed during the presser that in the case of "any hostile action against Iran, including the restoration of the repealed UN Security Council resolutions, Iran will regard these practical steps as terminated."
FM Abdelatty emphasized that both sides had shown “a will to restore mutual trust,” describing the agreement as “a genuine expression of the will to return to the path of technical cooperation and a message of hope to the international community that dialogue remains possible even in the most difficult circumstances.”
He added that the agreement represents “the beginning of a path that requires serious commitment from all parties and a climate that supports these efforts rather than undermines them.”
The Egyptian top diplomat noted that the “solutions must be diplomatic, far from the logic of arrogance of force,”
“From Egypt’s steadfast principle, we stand by efforts to strengthen security and stability,” he said.
“We support all efforts to reduce escalation that could otherwise reflect negatively on the entire region,” Abdelatty said during the presser
For his part, Grossi described the agreement as "an important step in the right direction, a door we are opening," while noting that some issues remain to be agreed upon.
According to a diplomat who attended the talks on Tuesday, the practical modalities include mainly the return of inspectors and transparency on Iran’s uranium enrichment.
Cairo facilitates
Before signing the deal, the three officials met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi at the Presidential Palace before holding a press conference to announce the deal.
The Egyptian foreign minister, who has placed his full weight behind the mediation effort per directives from President El-Sisi, was central to Tuesday’s breakthrough.
He had previously hosted a similar round of talks with both sides before Israel’s twelve-day war with Iran in June.
Last week, Abdelatty met both Araghchi and Grossi in Slovenia in an attempt to close the remaining gaps.
In the past several weeks, the Egyptian diplomatic efforts held consultations with his French, British, German, Iranian counterparts, as well as with American officials and Grossi.
The foreign ministry said these consultations aimed at resuming negotiations and creating “a climate conducive to security and stability in the region.”
The Cairo deal came as European governments threatened to impose sanctions on Tehran to resume cooperation with the IAEA.
France, Britain, and Germany — the so-called E3 — triggered the “snapback” mechanism on 28 August, which allows UN sanctions to be restored if Iran is deemed in breach of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.
That accord, signed in 2003 by Iran, the E3, the United States, Russia, and China, had lifted economic sanctions in exchange for strict monitoring of Iran’s nuclear programme.
In Vienna on Monday, Grossi told the IAEA’s board of governors: “There is still time, but not much. "
For now, the Cairo agreement creates a new “protocol of interaction” between Tehran and the agency, offering a pathway to restore inspections. Whether this will be enough to satisfy the E3 and halt the snapback of sanctions remains to be seen.
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