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Associated Press

The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites.
Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003. Iran says that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, and that its programme is entirely peaceful.
Reporting Iran to the Security Council opens the country to possible sanctions and asset freezes, though such punitive measures are unlikely because Iran’s allies Russia and China hold veto power on the panel.
Twenty-three countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member board of governors voted for Wednesday’s resolution at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
China, Russia and Niger opposed it, while eight countries abstained and one did not vote as it was in arrears, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-door vote.
The resolution was put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
The diplomatic move has been under consideration since June 2025, when the IAEA board found Iran officially in non-compliance with its non-proliferation obligations because of Tehran’s lack of cooperation in the investigation.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Reza Najafi, rejected the resolution, describing it as a “political tool” and saying that it ruined confidence in the IAEA’s “independence, impartiality and credibility”.

He suggested that compliance with any obligation to allow UN inspections of nuclear sites inside Iran was, in any case, impossible at the moment because of the country’s continuing war with the US and Israel.
The US this week destroyed five Iranian oil tankers and Tehran hit back at American targets in Jordan, the latest burst of back-and-forth strikes that have lurched the sides back towards open hostilities in a more than six-month-old war.
The draft resolution, which was seen by Associated Press, requested IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to report the agency’s concerns “to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the IAEA Statute”.
The resolution also reiterated its call upon Iran “to urgently remedy its non-compliance” with previous agreements and to take steps deemed necessary by the IAEA to assure “the non-diversion of nuclear material”.
Since Israel and the US struck Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June 2025, Iran has not given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that were affected by the strikes. The IAEA also has been unable to verify the status of Iran’s stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing.
Najafi said that air strikes by the US and Israel made safe access for inspectors to Iran’s nuclear sites “materially impossible”. He said that Iran has “neither stopped nor suspended its safeguards obligations”, adding that “performance is currently impossible under continuing military operations and persistent threats”.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi echoed that sentiment in an post on X.
“They attack Iran’s safeguarded nuclear facilities, disrupt the normal verification process, and then use that very disruption as a pretext to pass a resolution at the IAEA Board of Governors,” he said.
According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9kg (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity – a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponise its programme, IAEA chief Grossi warned in an interview last year with AP. He said that it does not mean that Iran has such a weapon.


Middle East diplomacy stalls as war spreads, Hormuz talks postponed

US-Israeli failure to bomb Iran into submission was preordained

Houthis hit Saudi base amid renewed fighting with Yemen government forces

Iran, UAE leaders discuss de-escalation as oil supply worries spike

US-Israel war on Iran

Nuclear agency board refers Iran to UN Security Council for first time in 20 years

A satellite image taken in February shows a new roof over a previously destroyed building at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site. Image: Planet Labs PBC via Reuters

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. Photo: AFP

Iran, US engage in wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping

 Iranian crude oil carrier M/T Riesco burns as it sinks after being struck. Photo: CENTCOM via Reuters

Jordanian air defences engaging missiles launched from Iran. Photo: EPA

Iranian oil tankers after being struck by US forces. Photo: CENTCOM via Reuters

A frame grab on Wednesday shows damage following Iran-backed Houthi strikes at an undisclosed location in southern Saudi Arabia. Photo: Handout / Saudi Ministry of Media / AFP

Iran says captured US underwater drone in Strait of Hormuz

This image shows what Iran described as a captured US military underwater drone at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. Photo: Sepahnews via AP

The captured underwater drone. Photo: Sepahnews via AFP

US targets Iran’s airlines with sweeping new sanctions

An Iranian airline Mahan Air plane lands at what is said to be Hodeidah airport in Yemen in footage released in July. Photo: Al Masirah TV via Reuters

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 1. Photo: Reuters

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are seen from Musandam, Oman, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Iran plans new ‘exclusion zone’ outside Strait of Hormuz after ship attacks

A motorboat passes a general cargo ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran on Sunday. Photo: AP

US Central Command said Saturday that one of the tankers it struck, the Kylo, had sunk in the Gulf of Oman. Photo: US Central Command via Reuters

Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Photo: Reuters

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IAEA remains blocked from key sites damaged during June 2025 military strikes by the US and Israel


IAEA remains blocked from key sites damaged during June 2025 military strikes by the US and Israel.


Nuclear agency board refers Iran to UN Security Council for first time in 20 years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}IAEA remains blocked from key sites damaged during June 2025 military strikes by the US and Israel

IAEA remains blocked from key sites damaged during June 2025 military strikes by the US and Israel