IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Monday that the lack of information from Iran regarding the status of its nuclear facilities and associated material and the watchdog’s inability to conduct verification activities at these facilities is a matter of serious proliferation concern.
“The best, shortest way for a positive outcome is for Iran to engage with us,” he told a press conference after opening the quarterly meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna.
Grossi then affirmed that at this point, “there's no engagement” with Iran, adding that Tehran has indicated it will not cooperate until a broader political agreement is reached.
“We do not subscribe to this logic,” he said, stressing that Iran's obligations as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “do not disappear.”
In his statement at the opening of the Board, Grossi said the Agency has neither received information from Iran regarding the status of its declared nuclear material or facilities nor had access to any of those facilities to conduct in-field verification activities.
Therefore, he noted, the Agency was unable to discharge its safeguards responsibilities under the NPT Safeguards Agreement at declared nuclear facilities in Iran.
Consequently, the IAEA was not able to verify their status for safeguards purposes and the associated nuclear material, he added.
Continuity of Knowledge
Grossi then said it is more than a year since the Agency lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of LEU and HEU enriched up to 60% U-235 at the declared nuclear facilities affected by the military attacks of June 2025.
The IAEA chief said the UN watchdog has been completely blind regarding Iran's nuclear program since at least June 2025, since the US and Israel launched a 12-day conflict that included strikes on nuclear sites.
Grossi called on Iran “to engage with the agency constructively in order to make possible the full and effective implementation of agency safeguards in Iran and to fulfill its responsibilities under the NPT Safeguards Agreement.”
He said a return to diplomacy and negotiations aimed at finding a solution to issues related to Iran’s nuclear program is imperative, adding that the agency stands ready to support such efforts. “The situation regarding Iran’s nuclear program has implications for the global nonproliferation regime.”
At his press conference following a speech to the board, Grossi said Iran had still not provided information on damage to nuclear facilities or on its nuclear material inventory.
He said the Cairo Agreement required Tehran to provide such information, including whether the inventory had changed following the attacks and why the agency had been unable to access the facilities.
Safety of Inspectors
Grossi said the safety of IAEA inspectors was not an insurmountable obstacle to verification work.
He belittled explanations by Iran, Russia, and China that tried to claim Tehran has not allowed IAEA inspections out of concern for the inspectors’ security in a war zone.
“We will not put anyone in danger,” he said.
Ukraine has been a worse and more constant war zone, Grossi affirmed, adding that inspectors have still managed to carry out inspections at nuclear facilities throughout the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Pickaxe Mountain
Grossi was asked about US President Donald Trump's remarks about the possibility of bombing facilities in the Pickaxe Mountain, and whether any new attack would affect the agency's activities.
He declined to comment on “national decisions,” saying only that the lesson of recent events was that a diplomatic solution was needed to give credible assurances that “nothing untoward” was happening in Iran.
Referring Tehran to Security Council
Concerning the resolution drafted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany seeking to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to comply with its nuclear reporting obligations, Grossi said that “my job with Iran continues, irrespective of the resolution.”
The draft, expected to be submitted and voted on this week seeks, asks Grossi to “submit this resolution to all members of the agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations.”
It also demands that Iran “urgently remedy its non-compliance” and allow inspections to ensure “the non-diversion of nuclear material,” Bloomberg said, citing a copy of the document.
The US resolution, backed by European members of the IAEA board also “stresses its support for a diplomatic solution” while encouraging “all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy,” according to Bloomberg.
Prior to the June 2025 strikes, the IAEA calculated that Iran possessed approximately 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, which is close to the 90% needed to make a bomb and well above the 3.67% limit set by a 2015 now-defunct agreement with Iran.
Later, Grossi mentioned “the historic breakthrough in safeguards implementation matters that has occurred in Syria.”
He said Syria’s new government agreed to provide information and grant the IAEA access to the Deir Ezzor site and other locations in Syria to address the outstanding safeguards issues stemming from the country’s past nuclear activities.
“I welcome Syria’s transparency and cooperation with the Agency which facilitates the resolution of the outstanding safeguards issues related to Syria’s past nuclear activities. I will provide more details of this progress a little later in my statement,” he said.
