UN nuclear watchdog says it can’t verify if Iran has halted all uranium enrichment

Iran has not allowed the United Nations nuclear watchdog to access nuclear facilities affected by the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog circulated to member states.

The report stresses that, therefore, the agency “cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities,” or the “size of Iran’s uranium stockpile at the affected nuclear facilities,” which it says “needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.”

“The director general calls on Iran to engage the agency constructively in order to facilitate the full and effective implementation of safeguards in Iran,” the International Atomic Energy Agency report adds.

The report also says some of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium, close to weapons grade, was stored in an underground area of its nuclear site in Isfahan.

It is the first time the IAEA has reported where uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, has been stored. The tunnel complex’s entrance was hit in US and Israeli military strikes last year but the facility seems largely unharmed, diplomats say.