OMM Newsroom
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “increasingly concerned” about a nuclear facility in Iran that it has not been allowed to inspect, according to a report cited by BBC.
Iran informed the agency of plans to establish a uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan one day before Israel began attacking Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025. The United States joined the strikes later that month.
The IAEA said it does not know the facility’s exact location or whether it contains nuclear material. Since the latest war began, Iran has restricted inspectors’ access to its nuclear sites, preventing the agency from verifying the country’s enriched uranium stockpile.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to limit its stockpile of enriched uranium to 300kg and enrichment to 3.67% purity. It later exceeded both limits. Before the June 2025 strikes, Iran had accumulated an estimated 441kg of uranium enriched to 60%, close to weapons-grade levels.
The nuclear complex in Isfahan sustained extensive damage in US and Israeli strikes, particularly to its above-ground sections. The condition of underground facilities is unclear, and the IAEA believes much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was stored there.
“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.
Iran announced plans for the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant (IFEP) on 12 June 2025, shortly after an IAEA resolution declared that Iran had failed to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations. Iran initially agreed to allow inspectors to visit the facility, but the inspection was cancelled after Israel launched attacks the following day.
The agency’s latest appeal comes almost a year after a similar call to Iran. At the time, it said it had inspected only some of the 13 nuclear facilities that were “unaffected” by the attacks and none of the seven that were affected.
The US and Israel said they attacked Iran’s nuclear sites to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Iran has consistently denied seeking to develop such weapons and says its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful civilian purposes.
