UN nuclear watchdog voices growing alarm over uninspected Iranian enrichment plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has no information on the location or contents of a uranium enrichment facility Iran announced in Isfahan a day before Israeli strikes began last June.
By Vanessa Lopez ·
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has expressed mounting concern about a nuclear facility in Iran that its inspectors have never been permitted to visit, according to a new report seen by news agencies.
Iran notified the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intention to build a uranium enrichment plant in the city of Isfahan on 12 June 2025, one day before Israel began striking Iranian nuclear sites. The United States joined the attacks later that month.
In its latest report, the IAEA said it does not know the exact location of the planned facility or whether it holds any nuclear material. Since the war began, Tehran has curbed inspectors' access to its nuclear sites, leaving the agency unable to verify the country's stockpile of enriched uranium.
"The Agency's lack of information about [Iran's] 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," the report said.
Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran committed to capping its enriched uranium stockpile at 300kg and keeping enrichment below 3.67% purity. It later breached both limits. Before the June 2025 strikes, it had amassed an estimated 441kg enriched to 60%, a level close to weapons grade.
The Isfahan nuclear complex sustained heavy damage in the American and Israeli attacks, especially its above-ground structures, while the state of its underground installations remains unknown. The IAEA believes a large share of Iran's highly enriched uranium was kept at the site.
Iran revealed its plans for the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant shortly after an IAEA resolution found that it had failed to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations. Tehran first agreed to let inspectors visit the plant, but the visit was called off after Israel launched its attacks the next day.
The agency's renewed demands come nearly a year after a similar appeal to Iran, when it reported it had inspected only some of the 13 nuclear facilities left unaffected by the strikes and none of the seven that were hit.
Washington and Israel have said they bombed Iran's nuclear sites to stop it from developing nuclear weapons, an ambition Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing. Tehran maintains that its nuclear programme serves peaceful civilian purposes only.
