Iran conducting regular activity at bombed uranium-enrichment sites: UN nuclear watchdog
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A handout satellite image taken and released on Feb 10 shows Iran's Isfahan nuclear facility site.
PHOTO: AFP
United Nations atomic inspectors report seeing Iran conducting regular activity at bombed uranium-enrichment sites, potentially complicating ongoing negotiations with Washington
Despite satellite imagery showing regular activities at sites that were bombed by the US and Israel in June 2025, Iran continues to stonewall inspector access to them, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Mariano Grossi reported on Feb 27.
Last week, he met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva in an attempt to end the standoff between Iran and his inspectors over access to nuclear facilities.
“The agency’s loss of continuity of knowledge over all previously declared nuclear material at affected facilities in Iran needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency,” Mr Grossi wrote in a 12-page restricted report seen by Bloomberg.
IAEA diplomats convene next week in Vienna to discuss Iran, with technical talks between envoys from Tehran and Washington expected to take place on the sidelines.
The IAEA hasn’t been able to verify the state and location of Iran’s inventory of near-bomb-grade uranium for more than eight months. Agency inspectors were performing routine weekly checks before Israel and the US began airstrikes against Iranian atomic facilities in June, after which Tehran curtailed the visits.
The US and Iran held a third round of talks
The negotiations are being held against a backdrop of repeated threats of military action by US President Donald Trump, with the US amassing its biggest concentration of military force in the Middle East in more than two decades.
A person familiar with Washington’s position said Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner left Geneva disappointed with the progress of the talks.
Officials from Iran and mediator Oman were more upbeat. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi hailed “significant progress” in a post on X.
New satellite images show that should Mr Trump pull the trigger, military planners will face a dispersed and partially concealed set of targets with little guarantee of success.
While US air power can destroy buildings, non-proliferation specialists say it cannot eliminate Iran’s scientific expertise, stockpiled material or the political will to rebuild.
The newest IAEA report reinforces those points. Inspectors say they’ve used satellite imagery to observe “regular vehicular activity” near sites where monitors believe enriched uranium to be stored. Additional activities have been observed at Iran’s enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordow.
“Without access to these facilities it is not possible for the agency to confirm the nature and purpose of the activities,” Mr Grossi wrote. “The agency cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium,”
Mr Grossi reiterated his agency “will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful” until Iran improves its cooperation.
The country has yet to submit a damage assessment or estimate the state and location of its uranium reserves.
While both the US and Iran say they are working toward a diplomatic solution, Mr Trump has previously said a deal must be reached by early March.
That loose deadline sets up a potential repeat of the timetable that played out in June, when Israel began strikes within 24 hours of the IAEA board’s decision to censure Iran over its lack of cooperation with monitors.
That finding was cited by US officials, who at the time suggested it provided the legal justification for military intervention. BLOOMBERG
