Overview
- Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said no uranium enrichment is taking place because key facilities were damaged in June and insisted all sites remain under IAEA safeguards.
- The IAEA reports it cannot verify Iran’s highly enriched uranium inventories since the attacks and says inspections at seven bombed sites, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, are long overdue.
- Satellite assessments show little visible activity at the struck facilities, while outside analyses cite expanded construction at a buried site near Natanz known as Pickaxe Mountain, which Tehran denies is an undeclared enrichment site.
- European powers restored UN sanctions through JCPOA snapback in September, and a new IAEA Board resolution is being readied, prompting Tehran to warn it may reassess cooperation with the agency.
- IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has described very limited current nuclear activity in Iran, as Iranian leaders assert an inalienable right to peaceful enrichment and President Masoud Pezeshkian vows to rebuild damaged sites.