IAEA has been short of verifying Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium in months.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not been able to verify the status of Iran’s near weapons-grade uranium stockpile since Israel and the United States struck the country’s nuclear sites during the 12 days war in June 2025, according to a confidential report by the IAEA circulated to member states.

The agency while admitting its shortfall has warned that it had lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran at facilities affected by the war and stressed that this issue must be urgently addressed. The report stressed that the IAEA’s lack of access to this nuclear material in Iran for five months means that its verification, according to standard safeguards practice, is long overdue. According to the IAEA’s last report in September 2025, 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 of 440.9 kilograms could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, if it decides to weaponise its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the Media. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon. On the otherside, Iran has insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organised nuclear weapons program up until 2003.

According to the safeguards agreement that Iran has with the United Nations IAEA, Iran is obliged to produce a “special report” detailing the location and status of its nuclear material, including its highly enriched uranium stockpile, following events such as attacks or earthquakes. The special report must also address the status of the facilities affected by the June war.

The IAEA said on 12th November, 2025 that “the provision of such a report is indispensable for the Agency to provide assurances that nuclear material subject to safeguards in Iran remains in peaceful nuclear activities and that the facilities subject to safeguards are not being misused”. The report said that Iran explained in a letter to the IAEA on November 11th that “any cooperation with the Agency is conditional on the decision of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) of Iran”.

The IAEA’s 12th November report has cited that Iran has not granted IAEA inspectors access to sites affected by the war. Tehran did, however, allow the IAEA to inspect undamaged facilities after Grossi reached an agreement with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Cairo at the beginning of September. Those facilities include the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor and three other nuclear facilities in Tehran.

The report reiterated the IAEA inspectors visit to Iran on Wednesday to conduct inspections at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center site. The facility, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It is also home to 03 Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with Iran’s atomic program. During the war, Israel struck buildings at the Isfahan site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The U.S. also struck Isfahan with missiles.

Immediate after the Israel – US attack, Iran had ceded all cooperation with the IAEA. It was IAEA chief Grossi then reached an agreement with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Cairo at the beginning of September to resume inspections. But later that same month, the U.N. reimposed crushing sanctions on Iran, drawing an angry response from Tehran and leading the country to halt implementation of the Cairo agreement.

Meanwhile, European powers decided to reimpose the U.N. sanctions via the so-called snapback mechanism after Iran failed to enter into direct talks with the U.S., resume full cooperation with the IAEA and clarify the status of its near weapons-grade uranium stockpile. The sanctions freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deal with Tehran, and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures, further squeezing the country’s reeling economy and isolating Tehran after its atomic sites were repeatedly bombed during a 12-day war with Israel.

Team Maverick