UN nuclear watchdog increasingly concerned about Iran enrichment plant, report says
UN nuclear watchdog increasingly concerned about Iran enrichment plant, report says
The UN nuclear watchdog is “increasingly concerned” about a uranium-enrichment plant at Isfahan that Iran declared to it last year but has still not let the watchdog inspect, it says in a confidential report on Iran seen by media outlets.
Iran has not let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors return to any of its nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States in a 12-day campaign in June 2025 that destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s other uranium enrichment plants, the heart of its nuclear program.
The targets included a tunnel network at Isfahan where diplomats have said they believe the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant (IFEP) — declared to the agency on June 12, 2025 — is located, though a senior diplomat says its whereabouts and status remained unknown.
The IAEA had planned to inspect the plant on June 13, 2025, but the bombing campaign started that day, making it impossible.
“The Agency does not know IFEP’s exact location, status for safeguards purposes or whether it contains nuclear material,” the confidential IAEA report to member states says, adding that “the Agency is also increasingly concerned that Iran has not permitted the Agency” to inspect the plant or see design plans.
Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture
The article never says that Iran told the IAEA in February that the Isfahan plant itself had come under attack, a claim the agency says it has been unable to verify. Without it a reader sees only that Iran has not permitted inspection and has given no account of the plant at all. Iran's own account of the same plant is missing.
How we know
- i24News reported“Iran told the IAEA in February that the plant itself had come under attack, but the agency has been unable to verify that claim”IAEA raises alarm over lack of access to Iran’s Isfahan enrichment plant (opens in a new tab)
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in March his agency believed a significant amount of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium was in the tunnel complex at Isfahan.
While the report singles out IFEP, it also reiterates that Iran should inform the IAEA of the status of its enrichment plants as well as its stock of highly enriched uranium, which includes material close to weapons grade, and let inspectors return to the bombed sites and account for the enriched uranium.
“The Agency’s lack of information about this nuclear material and access to facilities to verify it is a matter of serious proliferation concern …. and needs to be rectified with the utmost urgency,” it says
The agency urges Iran to take “incremental steps” to allow inspectors to return to key nuclear facilities, adding that such access is “critical.”
“The director general encourages Iran to consider technical and gradual measures by which conditions are achieved that allow for the return of agency inspectors to Iran,” the report says, adding “such incremental steps could pave the way to normal safeguards implementation in Iran.”
More from today’s Liveblog:
- Homeland security chief says no current signs that ‘a nefarious attack’ grounded flight across US
- Nearly 7,000 US flights have been delayed or cancelled due to nationwide plane grounding
- Aviation expert suggests US flight groundings caused by technical error, says she’s not heard any suggestion of terrorism
The Times of Israel Community.
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