The EU and the US on Monday urged Iran to allow inspectors access to a nuclear site, while Tehran argued the facility was exempt from a recent agreement with the UN watchdog.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday it had been denied "indispensable" access to the TESA Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop near Tehran contrary to a September 12 agreement with Iran.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Kazem Gharibabadi on Monday rejected the charge.

"During the discussions in Tehran and Vienna, Iran indicated that... equipment related to this Complex are not included for servicing," he tweeted, referring to IAEA work on its surveillance equipment.

Sunday's IAEA statement "isn't accurate and goes beyond the agreed terms," he added.

At a Vienna meeting of the IAEA board of governors on Monday, the EU said it urged Iran to allow access "without any further delay", expressing its "deepest concern".

"This is a worrying development," a statement said.

The US likewise said it was "deeply troubled" and urged access "without further delay".

"If Iran fails to do so, we will be closely consulting with other board members in the coming days on an appropriate response," Louis Bono, the US representative to the IAEA, said without giving further details.

Earlier this month, discussions of a resolution at the board of governors censuring Iran were dropped, according to diplomats, after the IAEA and Tehran agreed on limited but continued access for the agency.

The agreement came days after the nuclear watchdog had decried a lack of cooperation from Tehran.

But in his latest report on Iran to members Sunday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that agency inspectors had been allowed access to "all necessary locations" except the TESA Karaj workshop from September 20-22.

The news comes amid stalled EU-brokered negotiations to revive a 2015 landmark agreement scaling back Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

That deal started to fall apart in 2018 when the US withdrew from it and reinstated sanctions. Iran in turn again started to ramp up its nuclear activities.

Talks began in April in Vienna between Tehran and the remaining five parties to the 2015 deal aimed at bringing Washington back.

But that dialogue has been stalled since June, when ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi won Iran's presidential election.

Iran's foreign minister said Friday that talks would restart "very soon", but the US has called for a clear timetable.

Iran's nuclear program has crossed 'all red lines': Israel PM
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 27, 2021 - Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday that Iran had breached all the "red lines" aimed at curbing its nuclear weapons program but that Israel "will not allow" Tehran to get the bomb.

In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly, Bennett claimed the Islamic republic had in recent years taken "a major leap forward" in its nuclear production capacity and ability to enrich weapons-grade uranium.

"Iran's nuclear weapon program is at a critical point, all red lines have been crossed," said Bennett, who took office in June.

"There are those in the world who seem to see Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as an inevitable reality, as a done deal, or they have just become tired of hearing about it," the 49-year-old premier told the world body.

"Israel doesn't have that privilege. We cannot tire. We will not tire. Israel will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon."

Iran, which says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, said Friday that it expected talks to resume soon on reviving a 2015 landmark agreement scaling back its program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The agreement started to fall apart in 2018 when the US withdrew from it and reinstated sanctions. Iran in turn again started to ramp up its nuclear activities.

Bennett's predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in power from 2009 until June, was among the world's fiercest critics of the accord, regularly condemning it at international forums and cheering former US president Donald Trump's decision to withdraw.

Bennett, a foreign policy hawk who heads Israel's ideologically disparate, eight-party coalition government, also opposes the Iran nuclear deal, but did not mention it in his UN address.

- 'Back in the box' -

In a rare interview with a foreign media outlet, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Foreign Policy magazine this month that the Jewish state was not necessarily opposed to US efforts to re-enter a negotiated agreement with Iran.

"The current US approach of putting the Iran nuclear program back in a box, I'd accept that," Gantz told the magazine, in what was perceived by some Israeli experts as a policy shift.

But Gantz made clear that Israel would expect a "viable US-led plan B" to be in place should talks fail.

Bennett has not publicly expressed openness to a revived Iran deal but has criticised Netanyahu over what he termed "the gap" between the former leader's rhetoric on Iran and reality.

Bennett has argued that his former mentor Netanyahu successfully talked tough but his achievements in restricting Iran's nuclear capacities were limited.

He told the UN that Iran has enriched "uranium to the level of 60 percent which is one step short of weapons-grade material -- and they're getting away with it."

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At UN, West frustrated by slow pace with Iran
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 23, 2021
The United States and European Union voiced frustration at the UN this week over the slow pace with Iran, saying its new government showed no indication it was ready to revive a nuclear accord. Iran's new ultraconservative president, Ebrahim Raisi, strongly denounced the United States in a video address to the General Assembly Tuesday and indicated he backed a return to indirect talks with the United States in Vienna, although he did not give a timeline. "We don't have yet an agreement by Iran t ... read more