UN watchdog calls on Iran to reopen nuclear facilities to inspection

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called for Tehran to restore access for its inspectors in a report circulated by the watchdog among member states on Friday, insisting the move is essential to carry out its remit to monitor the Iranian nuclear programme.

Iran has allowed only very limited IAEA inspections since the United States and Israel launched attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. The report said Tehran had told the organisation that it was not possible to allow the inspections to continue amid the current security situation.

The IAEA said the lack of information about Iran’s atomic sites and nuclear material is “a matter of proliferation concern” that “needs to be rectified with the utmost urgency,” The Associated Press news agency reported.

The watchdog noted that it is “fully prepared to resume its safeguards activities in Iran at short notice”.

The report expressed particular concern about an underground uranium-enrichment plant near Isfahan in central Iran, according to the Reuters news agency.

Tehran declared the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant in 2025 but has not permitted the IAEA access to inspect the facility.

Inspectors still do not know the plant’s precise location, whether it holds nuclear material, or its status under international monitoring rules. The report did not establish that uranium enrichment is taking place there.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi urged Iran to consider limited technical measures that could make inspection visits possible and help restore routine monitoring, the AFP news agency said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said at a news conference in Tehran on Monday that Iran remained committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

But he blamed US and Israeli attacks for limiting cooperation with the IAEA. Since the bombing of the nuclear facilities last year, the watchdog has been unable to verify the status of Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium, the report noted.

The IAEA withdrew its inspectors for safety reasons, and Iran later passed a law suspending cooperation with it.

The IAEA’s inspections are intended to verify that nuclear material is not diverted towards weapons. Without direct access to sites such as Isfahan, the agency cannot independently establish what is happening at those facilities.

However, the report notes that Iran told the IAEA this month that discussion on resuming inspections in the country cannot resume amid “persistent, explicit, and public threats by the President of the United States of America … to commit further acts of armed aggression”.

Iran said that the issue would not be resolved “until the root causes of the present situation are addressed and the essential requirements for normal safeguards implementation are restored,” the report added.