Nuclear watchdog reports Iran to the UN security council

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Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003. 

Iran insists that it’s not pursuing nuclear weapons and that its programme is entirely peaceful.

Reporting Iran to the security council opens the country to more possible sanctions and asset freezes, though such punitive measures are likely to be vetoed by Russia and China, permanent members with veto power.

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 didn’t vote as it was in arrears, according to sources.

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 nonproliferation obligations because of Tehran’s lack of co-operation 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 illegal and unprovoked war launched against it by the US and Israel.

The US this week destroyed five Iranian oil tankers and Tehran hit back at US targets in Jordan in the latest burst of back-and-forth strikes that have left the two sides on the brink of returning to full conflict.

The resolution requested IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi to report the agency’s concerns “to the security council and the general assembly of the UN, 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 hasn’t 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.