IAEA says Iran has saved most of its extremely enriched uranium at an underground tunnel advanced at its Isfahan facility.
Printed On 27 Feb 2026
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has stated in a report that Iran has saved most of its extremely enriched uranium at an underground tunnel advanced at its Isfahan facility, urging Tehran to permit inspections because it faces growing pressure from the USA over its nuclear programme.
The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA) report, which was circulated to members Friday, confirmed earlier findings that the nation was enriching uranium as much as 60 %, which is a brief step away weapons-grade purity, elevating issues over the IAEA’s lack of entry to the Isfahan web site, one in all three services that the US claimed to have “obliterated” in final 12 months’s 12-day war.
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The IAEA report additionally said that its inspectors have no idea the exact location of a fourth uranium enrichment facility that Iran stated it was establishing in Isfahan previous to the 12-day conflict, including that they weren’t conscious of its operational standing or whether or not it at the moment incorporates nuclear materials.
The IAEA stated it had noticed in satellite tv for pc imagery “common vehicular exercise across the entrance to the tunnel advanced at Isfahan wherein (uranium) enriched as much as 20% and 60% U-235 … was saved”, stressing the significance of with the ability to perform inspections in Iran with out additional delay.
There was no fast remark from Iran.
The report comes a day after US and Iranian negotiators held a third round of oblique talks mediated by Oman in Geneva that yielded no breakthrough.
Will probably be mentioned at a quarterly assembly of the IAEA’s 35-country board commencing on Monday subsequent week in Vienna, coinciding with additional Oman-mediated conferences between technical groups in the identical metropolis.
There may be uncertainty over the destiny of Iran’s stockpile of greater than 400kg (882 kilos) of 60 % enriched uranium that was final seen by nuclear watchdog inspectors final June 10.
Israel launched strikes on Iran later that month, starting a 12-day conflict that the US briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear websites.
Tehran suspended some cooperation with the IAEA and restricted the watchdog’s inspectors from accessing websites bombed by Israel and the USA, accusing the UN physique of bias and of failing to sentence the strikes.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem stated the technical factors up for dialogue within the Oman-mediated talks on Monday would, he stated, be “associated” to extracting the 440.9kg (972 kilos) of uranium enriched to as much as 60 % that the IAEA had reported previous to the 12-day conflict, in case there was “any tendency to go in direction of weaponisation of the programme”.
Nevertheless, Hashem added, the IAEA is conscious that “even the Iranians aren’t in a position to get into these services.” “So there’s been a whole lot of work across the services, a minimum of that is what was proven in satellite tv for pc imagery, however it doesn’t appear that the Iranians had been in a position to get in,” he stated.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi stated the stockpile of enriched uranium and the inspections had been the principle “sticking level” in US-Iran discussions.
After yesterday’s talks, Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi stated the US ought to cease its “extreme calls for”. He didn’t specify what these calls for had been, however the US has stated it needs Iran to dismantle its nuclear infrastructure totally, restrict its arsenal of ballistic missiles and cease supporting regional allies.
