Image source: EPA
The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed "increasing concern" about a nuclear facility in Iran that has not been allowed to be inspected.
Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of plans to establish a uranium enrichment plant in the city of Isfahan one day before Israel began attacking its nuclear sites last June, before the United States joined the strikes later that month.
In a report seen by news agencies, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that it “does not know the exact location of the facility or whether it contains nuclear materials.”
Since the beginning of the last war, Iran has imposed restrictions on the access of IAEA inspectors to its nuclear sites, preventing the agency from verifying its stockpile of enriched uranium.
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Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium to 300 kilograms and reduce the enrichment rate to 3.67% purity, before later exceeding both limits.
Before the June 2025 strikes, Iran had accumulated an estimated 441 kilograms enriched to 60%, a percentage close to the level needed to make nuclear weapons.
The nuclear complex in Isfahan was severely damaged by American and Israeli strikes, especially the above-ground parts, while the fate of its underground facilities remains ambiguous.
The International Atomic Energy Agency believes that much of Iran's highly enriched uranium was stored at this facility.
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The agency announced in its latest report that “the agency’s lack of information about (Iranian) nuclear materials and access to facilities to verify them represents a serious concern about nuclear proliferation...and this must be corrected with the utmost urgency.”
It announced plans to establish the Isfahan fuel enrichment plant on June 12, 2025, shortly after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a resolution declaring Iran’s failure to fulfill its obligations related to nuclear safeguards.
Iran initially agreed to allow inspectors to visit the facility, but the inspection tour was canceled after Israel launched attacks the next day.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's latest calls come about a year after it issued a similar appeal to Iran. The agency said at the time that it had only inspected some of the 13 nuclear facilities that were “unaffected” by the attacks, and that it had not inspected any of the seven facilities that were affected by the bombings.
The United States and Israel said they attacked Iran's nuclear sites to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons - something Iran has consistently denied or even sought, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes only.
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