Iran Warns IAEA against Adopting Resolution to Allow Access to Disputed Sites

Iran warns the IAEA against endorsing a draft resolution to push Tehran to allow access for inspectors to two disputed sites over unannounced nuclear activities. (Reuters)
Iran warns the IAEA against endorsing a draft resolution to push Tehran to allow access for inspectors to two disputed sites over unannounced nuclear activities. (Reuters)
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Iran Warns IAEA against Adopting Resolution to Allow Access to Disputed Sites

Iran warns the IAEA against endorsing a draft resolution to push Tehran to allow access for inspectors to two disputed sites over unannounced nuclear activities. (Reuters)
Iran warns the IAEA against endorsing a draft resolution to push Tehran to allow access for inspectors to two disputed sites over unannounced nuclear activities. (Reuters)

Iran has warned the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) against endorsing a draft resolution to push Tehran to allow access for inspectors to two disputed sites over unannounced nuclear activities.

“I note with serious concern that, for over four months, Iran has denied us access to two locations and that, for almost a year, it has not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the IAEA.

“I call on Iran to cooperate immediately and fully with the Agency, including by providing prompt access to the locations specified by us,” said Grossi.

Iran's Ambassador to the UN in Vienna Kazem Gharib Abadi stated that "Introduction of this resolution aiming to call on Iran to cooperate with the Agency ... is disappointing and absolutely counterproductive."

Abadi warned that if the resolution was adopted "Iran would have no choice but to take appropriate measures, the consequences of which would be upon the sponsors of such political and destructive approaches." He did not specify what these measures would be.

Abadi argued that the IAEA's access requests were based on allegations from Iran's arch-enemy Israel. Additional information provided by the IAEA in support of its requests "were merely some commercial satellite imageries that contained no convincing underlying reason" to provide access, he added.

Iran has accused the European parties to the deal—France, the UK and Germany—of not doing enough to mitigate the impact of American sanctions. In his statement, Abadi hinted that pressing ahead with the resolution could cause "complication and difficulties" for the future of the 2015 accord.

“The Europeans couldn’t sit back and not do anything,” Reuters quoted a Western diplomat as saying.



French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
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French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)

France's intelligence chief said on Tuesday that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program have been pushed back several months after American and Israeli air strikes, but there is uncertainty over where its highly-enriched uranium stocks are.

"The Iranian nuclear program is the material, it is highly-enriched uranium, it is a capacity to convert this uranium from the gaseous phase to the solid phase. It is the manufacturing of the core and it is the delivery," Nicolas Lerner, who heads the DGSE intelligence service, told LCI television.

"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged and that the nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months."

Lerner, who was speaking for the first time on national television, said a small part of Iran's highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.

"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.

Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild.

Lerner echoed those comments saying there was a possibility Iran could press ahead with a clandestine program with smaller enrichment capacities.

"That's why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis," he said.