In resolution draft at IAEA, US demands Iran open up on sites, uranium stocks

PARIS/VIENNA – The United States is lobbying other countries on the UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors to back a draft resolution ordering Iran to inform the agency of the fate of its bombed nuclear sites and the enriched uranium that was stored there.

The text of the US draft resolution circulated ahead of this week’s quarterly meeting of the 35-nation board risks further complicating current talks between the US and Iran because Iran bristles at resolutions against it at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

While previous IAEA board resolutions against Iran have passed by a clear margin, this text could meet stiffer resistance since it is the US that, along with Israel, bombed Iran’s nuclear sites last June, since when the agency has been unable to return to those sites.

Iran must “provide the Agency with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran” and “grant the Agency all access it requires to verify this information,” the text said, saying both must happen “without delay” and are “essential and urgent”.

The text refrains, however, from reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, as some diplomats had said was being considered, which would have been a follow-up to a resolution the board passed on June 12, 2025, declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

Israel started bombing Iran’s nuclear sites on June 13.

The US mission to the IAEA has declined to comment on its pursuit of a resolution this time.