For the first time since the US-Iran MoU was signed earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced it will have access to Iran for official inspections of the country's nuclear facilities.

However, a precise timeline for when the inspections are expected to commence was not given. "There is an agreement and to comply with that agreement, the IAEA will have to have access and inspect,” UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said at a news conference in Japan. "We hope to be there soon."

"The inspections will indeed take place," he emphasized to reporters. "We will be working on the modalities - dates, procedures, places - very soon."

The agreement signed last week said "explicitly" that the dilution of Iran's highly enriched uranium would be carried out under IAEA supervision, he added.

But importantly, Tehran has in the last days made its position clear that it will keep key sites off-limits until a final deal with Washington is reached and sanctions are lifted.

US chief negotiator in Switzerland, JD Vance, came away insisting that the IAEA will soon return - which Iranian officials have contradicted.

Grossi had further stated in his Friday remarks that the Iranians' pledge to not pursue a nuclear weapon would need "very strong" verification.

But he also conceded that thus far the UN agency itself had "barely initiated" talks with Iran on the heels of the formalized MoU agreement with the United States.

"I think the objective of this agreement is to ensure that there is no development of nuclear weapons in Iran. The government of Iran has declared quite clearly that this is not their intention," Grossi continued.

"But of course intentions are not enough. We have to have a very strong verification system in place... as soon as is practicable," he added.

The US administration has so far said that it is not prepared to budge on this issue of thorough inspections. Ironically the 2015 JCPOA under Obama, which Trump has frequently lambasted, included just such an inspection regimen.

It remains to be seen whether the US can get a better inspection deal in place, or whether any new scenario will fall short of the prior JCPOA. Tehran sees itself in a strong position, and won't so easily accept demands which it deems as giving too much to the US and Israel.