Iran nuclear inspections needed urgently, IAEA says

The UN nuclear watchdog urged Iran to take “incremental steps” to allow inspectors back into key nuclear facilities, saying access was critical and should happen without further delay.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to be discussed by its board of governors next week that it needed to carry out verification activities in Iran. The report said technical and gradual measures could help restore normal safeguards work and support a wider agreement.

The IAEA has not had access to key nuclear facilities in Iran since Israel, joined by the United States, launched a 12-day conflict in June 2025 that included strikes on nuclear sites. Nuclear facilities have also been hit in the latest war, which erupted on February 28, and the agency has repeatedly called for access.

Inspectors were able to visit Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant in September, but have not had access to other facilities.

The IAEA said military attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities had created an unprecedented situation. But it also said that, because of a lack of cooperation, the agency could not conclude that there had been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran.

The agency called its lack of information about nuclear material and its lack of access to verify it “a matter of serious proliferation concern” that needed urgent correction.

The IAEA board referred Iran to the UN Security Council in September over nuclear “non-compliance”, the first such referral in 20 years over Iran's failure to comply with nuclear reporting obligations.

Before the June 2025 strikes, the IAEA calculated that Iran had about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, near the 90 percent needed to make a bomb and above the 3.67-percent limit set by a now-defunct 2015 agreement. The fate of that stockpile has remained uncertain since June 2025. Iran has long denied seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.