The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday there was no indication that Iran had attempted to repair or rebuild its nuclear facilities damaged in US and Israeli military strikes in 2025 and 2026.
US President Donald Trump has said one of the main reasons Washington went to war with Iran on February 28 was to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. At the same time, he has maintained that US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025 had “obliterated” the country's nuclear programme.
Addressing a UN Security Council meeting, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi urged Iran to allow inspectors access to all its nuclear facilities, including those damaged in the military attacks.
The IAEA has been unable to verify the status of Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium since the United States bombed its nuclear sites last year.
However, Grossi said, “Since June 2025, we have not identified any activity to repair or reconstruct any of the facilities damaged in the military attacks of 2025 and 2026.”
Trump has repeatedly played down the economic impact of the war with Iran, which has become a political liability for Republicans ahead of next week's midterm elections. He has argued that higher fuel prices are a price worth paying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Grossi's remarks on Tuesday evening.
Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is peaceful. However, the IAEA says the country has a stockpile of 440.9 kilogrammes (972 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, a short technical step away from the 90% enrichment level generally associated with weapons-grade uranium.
The Security Council meeting was requested by Bahrain, Denmark, Latvia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States after the IAEA referred Iran to the council over its failure to comply with nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Russia and China, both allies of Iran, unsuccessfully attempted to block the meeting.
Under its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally required to declare all nuclear materials and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of them is diverted from peaceful purposes.
Iran's Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Gholamhossein Darzi, criticised the Security Council for remaining silent following the US-Israeli attacks, condemning what he described as their “wars of aggression against Iran” and accusing Washington of committing war crimes against the Iranian people.
Darzi did not address the IAEA's unanswered questions or its demand for the return of inspectors. Instead, he argued that “Israel possesses nuclear weapons, yet your concern is the absence of inspectors in Iran.”
Israel has never confirmed that it possesses nuclear weapons.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz described Iran as a “brutal dictatorship” and asked whether the Iranian ambassador wanted to apologise to Bahrain's envoy, whose country is a member of the Security Council, for attacking his country.
“We've heard tireless allegations against the United States,” Waltz said. “What we have not heard today is an explanation for Iran's continued failure to satisfy its safeguard obligations.”
Waltz said the IAEA had sought answers from Iran and urged the Iranian representative to begin providing them.
“Your lies are no good here,” he said.