IAEA Worried About Lack of Access to Iranian Nuclear Sites

The gate of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz. (Wikimedia Commons/Parsa 2au)

JAKARTA - The United Nations nuclear agency reiterated in a confidential report on Thursday that the lack of access to verify nuclear material in Iran raised "proliferation concerns," and called on Tehran to "interact constructively with the agency."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not had access to several key nuclear facilities in Iran since Israel and the United States launched a 12-day conflict in June 2021 that led to attacks on nuclear sites.

Nuclear sites have also been attacked in the war that erupted on February 28. The IAEA has repeatedly urged access.

"Although the agency acknowledges that the military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and sites has created an unprecedented situation, it is very important for the agency to carry out verification activities in Iran without delay," the IAEA said in the report, launching Al Arabiya and AFP (5/6).

The report will be discussed at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting next week.

Prior to the US attack in June 2025, the IAEA estimated Iran had about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent needed to make a bomb and well above the 3.67 percent limit set by the now defunct 2015 deal with Iran.

Since June 2025, the fate of these stocks remains uncertain, with Tehran refusing IAEA inspectors access to locations destroyed by US and Israeli attacks.

"The lack of access by the agency to verify high-enriched uranium and low-enriched uranium that had previously been declared for almost a year - which is long overdue according to standard safeguards practices - is a worrying issue related to proliferation," he explained.

"The Director General (Rafael Grossi) called on Iran to engage constructively with the agency to facilitate the full and effective implementation of safeguards in Iran," he added.

Israel and the United States have long accused Iran of having ambitions to build nuclear weapons, with President Donald Trump claiming the threat as justification for last year's conflict and this year's war.

Trump insisted Iran must accept that it would not have nuclear weapons and that the uranium would be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Mullah State has repeatedly denied having any military ambitions, and insists on its right to the technology for civilian purposes.