UN nuclear chief seeks access to Iran’s uranium as council disputes sanctions

Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council on 27 October that Iran had not given inspectors the information and access needed to verify previously declared nuclear material at facilities affected by military attacks and at those left untouched. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief said normal inspections had not resumed, leaving a central question about Iran’s enriched uranium unanswered.

Grossi identified the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where inspectors were carrying out verification work, as an exception. He also said the agency had seen no activity to repair or rebuild facilities damaged in attacks in 2025 and 2026. But observing the sites from outside, he said, could not replace access to check their condition. Russia pointed to inspections at unaffected facilities after the earlier attacks; those visits do not resolve the agency’s questions about material elsewhere.

The IAEA’s last estimate of uranium enriched to up to 60% was 440.9kg as of 13 June 2025. In September 2026, it said it could not determine the current size, composition or whereabouts of Iran’s enriched-uranium stockpile. The agency withdrew its inspectors for safety reasons after attacks began in June 2025, while some unresolved safeguards questions date back to 2019.

The meeting itself went ahead only after Russia requested a vote on its provisional agenda. Eleven council members voted in favour; Russia and China voted against, while Pakistan and Somalia abstained. That was a decision to hold the discussion, not a ruling on the sanctions disputed by members.

Russia, China and Iran argue that the resolution governing the 2015 nuclear agreement expired on 18 October 2025. France and Britain say a procedure begun with Germany the preceding August restored earlier sanctions. The Security Council’s website records those measures as reapplied in September 2025, but Russia and China contest the legal basis. The resolution made its scheduled expiry conditional on the earlier measures not having been restored.

The disagreement has practical consequences for oversight. Russia and China vetoed an extension of the UN sanctions expert panel’s mandate in September, and the sanctions committee still has no chair. At Tuesday’s meeting, the United States said it would work with interested countries on a separate monitoring mechanism; it did not announce that one had been established.