As the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors met on 9 September, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, Reza Najafi, condemned the resolution before it as “dangerous and entirely counterproductive.” Najafi said that “granting safe access to such facilities is materially impossible”, attributing the problem to US and Israeli military strikes.
The board nevertheless voted 23-3 to report Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to meet its safeguards obligations. Russia, China and Niger opposed the resolution, while eight states abstained.
The dispute began to deepen after military strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme in June 2025. Tehran suspended cooperation with the IAEA after those strikes.
On 1 September, the agency said Iran had shown a ‘continued refusal to engage the Agency.’ It said Tehran’s failure to give inspectors access to certain nuclear sites meant the IAEA ‘could not verify the status, for safeguards purposes, of these facilities and associated nuclear material.’
Iran has since allowed periodic access to unaffected locations, including the Bushehr power reactor. It has withheld access to bombed facilities and has not supplied updated reports.
The referral places the safeguards question before the Security Council, rather than leaving it solely with the IAEA’s technical inspection process. Russia and China opposed the board’s decision.
There has been a limited diplomatic opening. US and Iranian officials met in September, though diplomacy remains stalled.
On 24 September, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Fox News that “we are willing to submit ourselves to verification,” provided verification formed part of a diplomatic agreement.
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