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IAEA: Unable to verify Iran halted enrichment after June war

Nuclear watchdog says lack of access to bombed sites prevents assessment of uranium stockpiles.

International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Credit: IAEA.
International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Credit: IAEA.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday it cannot verify whether Iran suspended uranium enrichment following strikes on its nuclear facilities during last June’s 12-day war with Israel and the United States.

In a confidential report circulated to member states and seen by the Associated Press, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Tehran has denied inspectors access to facilities that were hit in the fighting.

As a result, the agency “cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities” or determine the size of its enriched uranium stockpile at the affected sites.

Iran maintains four declared enrichment facilities; the IAEA warned that the continued lack of monitoring means it cannot provide information on the “size, composition or whereabouts” of the material. The report added that the “loss of continuity of knowledge … needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.”

Tehran informed the agency in a Feb. 2 letter that normal safeguards were “legally untenable and materially impracticable” due to what it described as threats and “acts of aggression.”

According to the report, inspectors were granted at least one visit to each unaffected nuclear facility since June 2025, except for a power plant under construction at Karun in Khuzestan Province.

Iran is obligated to cooperate with the IAEA under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but suspended full cooperation after the war. Tehran has long insisted its program is peaceful, while Western governments and the agency say it maintained an organized nuclear weapons program at least until 2003.

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