A woman walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Originally published by
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. and Iran were in dispute Tuesday over whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to view bombed Iranian nuclear sites, as officials mediated talks on a permanent end to their war and violence broke out again in Lebanon. The differing accounts came as Iran’s president met with Pakistani officials mediating negotiations and while technical teams were working on details following talks in Switzerland between the U.S. and Iran. As those talks continued, a break in the shipping bottleneck through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to be in the works. The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, announced Tuesday that a plan is underway to evacuate 11,000 stranded seafarers through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded before the war. Earlier in the day, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran that U.N. inspectors were not scheduled to examine the nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. last year, refuting comments made a day before by U.S. Vice President JD Vance. In response, President Donald Trump posted on social media that Iran had agreed to nuclear inspections long into the future, saying that without this concession “there would be no further negotiations!” The International Atomic Energy Agency has not responded to requests for comment over its possible role. It has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war in 2025, but has not been granted access to bombed enrichment sites targeted by the U.S.
