IAEA Says Unable to Verify Whether Iran Has Suspended All Uranium Enrichment

A combination picture of satellite images shows Shiraz South Missile Base in Shiraz South, Iran, before reconstruction, July 3, 2025 (LEFT), and after reconstruction and clearance efforts, January 30, 2026. Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS
A combination picture of satellite images shows Shiraz South Missile Base in Shiraz South, Iran, before reconstruction, July 3, 2025 (LEFT), and after reconstruction and clearance efforts, January 30, 2026. Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS
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IAEA Says Unable to Verify Whether Iran Has Suspended All Uranium Enrichment

A combination picture of satellite images shows Shiraz South Missile Base in Shiraz South, Iran, before reconstruction, July 3, 2025 (LEFT), and after reconstruction and clearance efforts, January 30, 2026. Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS
A combination picture of satellite images shows Shiraz South Missile Base in Shiraz South, Iran, before reconstruction, July 3, 2025 (LEFT), and after reconstruction and clearance efforts, January 30, 2026. Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS

Iran has not allowed the United Nations nuclear agency access to its nuclear facilities bombed by Iran and the United States during a 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the watchdog circulated to member states and seen Friday by The Associated Press.

The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency stressed that it “cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities,” or the “size of Iran’s uranium stockpile at the affected nuclear facilities.”

The IAEA report on Friday warned that due to the continued lack of access to any of Iran’s four declared enrichment facilities, the agency “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran.”

The agency also said that Iran has not provided access to IAEA inspectors to the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant since Iran first made available information about the new facility over eight months ago. The confidential report warned that therefore the agency does not know whether this facility “contains nuclear material or is operational.”

The report stressed that the “loss of continuity of knowledge over all previously declared nuclear material at affected facilities in Iran needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.”

Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.

The IAEA reported that Iran had informed the agency in a letter dated Feb. 2 that “the conditions resulting from acts of aggression and the continuation of threats have created a situation in which the normal implementation of safeguards is legally untenable and materially impracticable,” adding that it would be “inconsistent with Iran’s essential security considerations."

The confidential IAEA report also said Friday that Iran did provide access to its inspectors “to each of the unaffected nuclear facilities at least once since the military attacks of June 2025, with the exception of Karun Nuclear Power Plant, which is in the early stages of construction and does not contain nuclear material.”

Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA after the war with Israel. Iran is legally obliged to cooperate with the IAEA under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Highly enriched material should be verified regularly According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.

Such highly enriched nuclear material should normally be verified every month, according to the IAEA’s guidelines.

The IAEA also reported that it had observed, through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan.”

The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, was mainly known for producing the uranium gas that is fed into centrifuges to be spun and purified.

Both Israel and Iran struck the Isfahan site in June.

The IAEA also reported that through the analysis of commercially available satellite imagery, it has observed “activities being conducted at some of the affected nuclear facilities, including the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow,” but it added that “without access to these facilities it is not possible for the Agency to confirm the nature and the purpose of the activities.”

The IAEA reported on Friday that Grossi attended negotiations between the US and Iran on Feb. 17 and Feb. 26 in Geneva at which he “provided advice on issues relevant to the verification of Iran’s nuclear program.” The report said that those negotiations are “ongoing."

The Trump administration has held three rounds of nuclear talks this year with Iran under Omani mediation. Thursday's talks in Geneva ended without a deal, leaving the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the US has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who mediated in the Geneva talks, said technical discussions involving lower-level representatives would continue next week in Vienna, the home of the IAEA. The agency is likely to be critical in any deal.

The US is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.

If the talks fail, uncertainty hangs over the timing of any possible attack, as well as its mission and goals.

Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment on its soil or hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Similar talks last year between the US and Iran about Iran’s nuclear program broke down after the start of the war in June. Before then, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity.

 



Ukraine Strike Kills 3 in Russian-occupied Crimea

A local woman, Olga, 35, and her daughter Natalia, 6, walk at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, 02 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
A local woman, Olga, 35, and her daughter Natalia, 6, walk at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, 02 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
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Ukraine Strike Kills 3 in Russian-occupied Crimea

A local woman, Olga, 35, and her daughter Natalia, 6, walk at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, 02 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
A local woman, Olga, 35, and her daughter Natalia, 6, walk at the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, 02 June 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO

A Ukrainian strike killed at least three people in Crimea, the region's Moscow-installed authorities said Thursday, a day after Kyiv targeted energy and military sites in Saint Petersburg where Russia was hosting an economic forum.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of a "real" risk of the Ukraine war escalating as Kyiv underlines its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with the attacks.

Ukraine has described its strikes on Saint Petersburg as "fair" retaliation for a wave of Russian bombardment on its territory.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of the Crimea region, said early Thursday that preliminary reports showed a strike on non-residential buildings in Simferopol claimed three lives and wounded seven others, AFP said.

"Emergency services are currently at the scene," Aksyonov wrote on Telegram.

The strike came as 20,000 people from 130 countries were due at the three-day annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) -- an event once dubbed "Russia's Davos".

President Vladimir Putin is to give a keynote address at the forum on Friday and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov vowed Russia would provide a "systemic" response to Ukraine's strikes on the city.

Black smoke from the strikes was visible from the conference venue as the first sessions started on Wednesday.

Valeria, a 32-year-old businesswoman from Moscow at the forum, told AFP she was used to the threat of attacks.

"We have been living under such attacks for many years now," she said.

- 'Real' escalation risk -

Ukrainian officials have said the Saint Petersburg attack on an oil terminal and the city's Kronstadt military base was meant to disrupt the conference.

"The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes," said Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was responding "accordingly" to Russian bombardment.

"It's just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses," Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

On Wednesday, a drone strike on a bus in Russian-occupied east Ukraine killed at least seven people, Moscow-installed officials said.

Two others were killed, one in the Bryansk region near the Ukraine border and another in the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region, they added.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks left at least 10 dead across Ukraine, local officials said.

Rubio said at a US Senate appropriations panel that Ukraine has "become increasingly effective at conducting long-range strikes deep into Russia".

It's "one of the things that reminds us of why it's important to try to bring this war to an end, if we can, because the risk of escalation is real, more real than it was two years ago," Rubio added.

Speaking earlier to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rubio lamented the lack of progress on ending the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"To this point, neither side has been willing to make concessions, particularly on the Russian side, necessary in order to bring peace about," he said.

"But we stand ready, and we've engaged and invested a tremendous amount of high-level time on that conflict over the last year," he added.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas earlier told AFP that Ukraine's attacks had spooked the Kremlin.

"It clearly shows also panic on the Russian side -- why they are increasing the terrorist attacks that they're doing in Ukraine is because they don't know what to do with these things," Kallas said in an interview.

"Putin is losing money, men, and momentum, and that's why he's increasing attacks on civilians."


North Korea Unveils New Plant to Produce Fuel for Nuclear Weapons

This picture taken on June 3, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 4, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front R) inspecting the newly-inaugurated nuclear materials production factory at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on June 3, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 4, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front R) inspecting the newly-inaugurated nuclear materials production factory at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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North Korea Unveils New Plant to Produce Fuel for Nuclear Weapons

This picture taken on June 3, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 4, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front R) inspecting the newly-inaugurated nuclear materials production factory at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on June 3, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 4, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front R) inspecting the newly-inaugurated nuclear materials production factory at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korea on Thursday unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels, with leader Kim Jong Un announcing plans to bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”

Some experts still question whether North Korea has functioning nuclear missiles that can reach the US mainland. But the nuclear plant's disclosure implies that Kim is eager to cement his country's status as a nuclear power and has no intentions of placing his bomb program on a negotiating table.

After visiting the site on Wednesday, Kim said he and other top officials “confirmed the order of priority for implementing the ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The site is likely a uranium enrichment plant KCNA said the facility used “more sophisticated technology” but didn’t provide further details like its location. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the site as a uranium enrichment plant and said it was closely coordinating with the United States to monitor North Korean nuclear activities.

KCNA photos showed Kim walking through narrow aisles lined with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes, in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another image showed him speaking with senior officials in a meeting room, where a blurred graphic depicting a cone-shaped object was spread across a table. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the graphic showed a warhead design.

It's the third time that North Korea has disclosed a uranium enrichment site. In 2024, North Korea released photos of another covert uranium-enrichment plant. In 2010, North Korea showed one at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars.

Last September, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said that North Korea was operating a total of four uranium enrichment facilities including the Yongbyon complex, and that they were running everyday.

During his plant visit, Kim said the urgency for bolstering up the country’s nuclear war deterrent, both in quality and quantity, has grown because of confrontations with “the most ferocious enemies,” an apparent reference to the US and South Korea.

According to The Associated Press, Kim said exercising “the position of a nuclear weapons state” is his country's “invariable” stand. He said North Korea’s nuclear materials production capacity has more than doubled compared with five years ago, a claim that cannot be verified independently.

Experts say Kim wants an international recognition as a nuclear state so that he could demand the lifting of UN economic sanctions. They say Kim would ultimately push for arms reductions talks with the US as a way to win concessions in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to resume diplomacy with Kim, but the North Korean leader responded the Americans must first drop its demand for North Korea to denuclearize as a precondition for talks.

Some question North Korea's nuclear program Since his first round of nuclear diplomacy collapsed in 2019, Kim has performed a provocative run of weapons tests and vowed repeatedly to “exponentially” expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.

This led to many experts believing North Korea now likely has nuclear missiles capable of striking the US mainland. But some still note North Korea hasn't proved it mastered last-remaining technological hurdles to obtain such missiles, including ensuring its warheads survive the conditions of atmospheric reentry. They say North Korea also need to perfect technologies to place multiple nuclear warheads on a single missile to defeat US missile shields.

A senior South Korean official told lawmakers in 2018 that North Korea was estimated to have manufactured between 20 and 60 nuclear weapons, but some experts now put the size of the North’s arsenal at more than 100 warheads.

In 2023, North Korea unveiled a type of battlefield nuclear warheads. Some analysts speculated the warhead’s unveiling might be a prelude to a nuclear test. But North Korea hasn't carried out a test, which would have been its seventh detonation overall and the first since September 2017.


Trump Confirms He Called Netanyahu Crazy in Phone Call

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Confirms He Called Netanyahu Crazy in Phone Call

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump acknowledged having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled phone exchange over fighting in Lebanon, while the US was trying to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had called the longtime Israeli leader "effing crazy" and accused him of ingratitude, paraphrasing a report by Axios.

"I did," Trump told the "Pod Force One" podcast. "I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know."

Trump went on to say he and Netanyahu get along very well.

According to the Axios report, which cited an unidentified US official, Trump said to Netanyahu in a call on Monday: "You're ‌[expletive] crazy. You'd ‌be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ‌ass. ⁠Everybody hates you ⁠now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."

Trump said in the interview: "At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it."

NETANYAHU CITES COMMON GOALS 

Netanyahu, asked about the Axios report, declined to offer details of the conversation but said his relationship with Trump had not changed. 

"We have common goals. Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements," he said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday. 

"He's been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House, and he respects ⁠me; I respect him. We always find a way to work out our ‌differences." 

Iran has said it will not agree to a deal with the United States to end the war that Trump ⁠and Netanyahu launched in late February, unless a ceasefire also covers Lebanon, ‌which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the ‌Iran-aligned Hezbollah group that fired across the border in support of Tehran.

Hostilities have continued despite a US-mediated agreement ‌announced on Monday that led Israel to step back from attacking the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs ‌of Beirut, and the group to halt cross-border strikes.

Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.

Trump bristled when asked if Netanyahu "tricked" him into attacking ‌Iran, saying his critics were "the enemy."

"I mean, I'm the one that started it," Trump said. "I started because we can't let them have ⁠a nuclear weapon."

"Now ⁠that pertains to Israel, because they probably would have been the first one to get hit. There would be no Israel. Tell you what, if there wasn't me, there would be no Israel right now."

Trump maintained that Israel would have been in a far worse position if he had not abandoned a 2015 accord reached by President Barack Obama and other world leaders with Iran, under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

After Trump withdrew from that deal during his first White House term in 2018, Iran produced stockpiles of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, which Trump now demands it relinquish. Trump's critics say Iran is now closer to making a nuclear weapon, and it will be hard for Trump to negotiate a better deal today.