Iran Tells UN Nuclear Watchdog Monitoring Can’t Continue Under Threat

VIENNA – Iran has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog that talks on restoring nuclear monitoring cannot move forward while the country remains threatened with military action.

In a confidential report circulated to member states Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran argued that discussions on resuming inspections cannot take place amid “a series of persistent, explicit, and public threats by the President of the United States of America … to commit further acts of armed aggression” against Iran, “particularly targeting its nuclear facilities.”

Iran said the impasse would continue “until the root causes of the present situation are addressed and the essential requirements for normal safeguards implementation are restored,” according to the report.

Iran has not allowed IAEA inspectors to access nuclear facilities damaged by Israeli and U.S. strikes during the 12-day war in June 2025. The agency has also been unable to verify the condition or location of Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels since the bombing campaign.

At the same time, Iran reaffirmed its “firm commitment to resume full implementation of its safeguards obligations as soon as the relevant legal and actual conditions permit it.”

The U.N. nuclear watchdog warned that the missing information on Iran’s nuclear facilities and materials represents “a matter of proliferation concern” and “needs to be rectified with the utmost urgency.” The IAEA said it is “fully prepared to resume its safeguards activities in Iran at short notice.”

Iran also raised objections in a letter to the IAEA over a recent U.S. offer of up to $20 million for information about its nuclear program. Tehran emphasized the need to preserve the “confidentiality” of the agency’s work and to ensure that information concerning Iran’s nuclear activities is not “disclosed, misused or exploited.”

The IAEA urged Iran to “consider technical and gradual measures” that could facilitate the return of inspectors.

Bushehr is the only Iranian facility inspected by the IAEA since last June. Inspectors visited the nuclear power plant from Sept. 12-15. The reactor currently operating there uses Russian-supplied uranium enriched to 4.5%, a low enrichment level required for power generation at such facilities.

Concern grows over nuclear facility never previously inspected

The IAEA report also expressed “increasing concern” about the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant. Iran first notified the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the facility last June, before joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes began.

Inspectors were scheduled to visit the site on the day the strikes started, but the inspection was canceled. The IAEA said it “does not know” the facility’s “exact location or whether it contains nuclear material.”

Israel and the United States fought a 12-day war with Iran last June, launching extensive airstrikes against the country’s nuclear facilities. The attacks left much of Iran’s nuclear program in ruins, although the full scale of the damage remains uncertain.

The United States and Israel carried out additional military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. The attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials while targeting Revolutionary Guard command centers, air defense systems, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.

The IAEA estimates that Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched to as much as 60% purity, putting it a short technical step below the 90% level generally considered weapons-grade.

That amount could be sufficient to produce as many as 10 nuclear bombs if Iran chose to weaponize its program, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told the AP in an interview last year. He stressed, however, that the stockpile does not mean Iran possesses such a weapon.

Under IAEA guidelines, uranium enriched to such a high level would normally be subject to monthly verification.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. The IAEA and Western governments, however, say Tehran operated an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.

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