IAEA Chief Warns Security Council That 440kg of Iran's Enriched Uranium Remains Unaccounted For

VIENNA/NEW YORK, The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog told the Security Council on Tuesday that Iran must allow inspectors back into its nuclear facilities without further delay, warning that the agency still cannot say what became of Tehran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, addressed the council a day after Israeli election results scrambled the political landscape in the Middle East's most nuclear-anxious neighbourhood. His message was blunt. According to a briefing reported by the Diplomatic Insight, Grossi told member states that the IAEA has not been able to verify that there has been "no diversion of nuclear material" that Iran is obliged to safeguard under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the agency.

The figure at the centre of the concern is 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Grossi told the council that this quantity remains unaccounted for, with inspectors unable to confirm that the material had not been moved from its declared purposes, according to reporting reviewed by Samaa TV and INP News.

The access problem dates to June 2025, when Israel and the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day conflict. Tehran sharply restricted IAEA access in the aftermath. It said in September 2025 it would allow inspectors to return, but access to the bombed facilities has not followed. The IAEA has not been able to verify the status of Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium since those strikes, the Times of Israel's live coverage noted, citing the Security Council session.

Isfahanm the fuel enrichment plant that Iran declared just before the June 2025 strikes, is among the sites still closed to inspectors. According to JFeed's account of the agency's response, the IAEA has made clear that physical access to these sites cannot be replaced by other means.

Iran's position has a logic to it, even if the watchdog rejects it. President Masoud Pezeshkian argued on October 5th that IAEA visits help identify facilities and scientists, and that bombings and assassinations follow. Tehran has repeatedly accused Israel of targeting its nuclear programme and its engineers. The IAEA, for its part, describes inspector access as Iran's legal obligation, not a diplomatic concession.

Grossi offered one partial note of reassurance: monitoring efforts have uncovered no reconstruction activity at any of the facilities damaged in the 2025 and 2026 attacks, as the Daily Caller reported from his remarks. But the IAEA acknowledged it cannot independently confirm the condition of facilities it cannot enter.

The diplomatic channel is not entirely frozen. Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on October 20th that Iran had preliminarily accepted a proposal for a confidential IAEA visit brokered by Qatar and Pakistan. According to analysis published by Diplomacy and Law, the proposal emerged from a broader push by both countries to revive nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and contemplated linking discreet inspections to arrangements involving Iranian assets held in Qatar. The extent of either government's firm commitment to those terms remained uncertain.

Russia and China, both of whom can veto Security Council action, voted against a recent resolution pressing Iran on the file. That arithmetic makes formal council censure close to impossible. What Grossi appears to be doing instead is building a public record of non-compliance, case by case, site by site, in the hope that diplomatic pressure accumulates where legal enforcement cannot.

For the moment, the 440 kilograms stays missing from the ledger.

Sources cited:
- The Diplomatic Insight (https://thediplomaticinsight.com/iaea-chief-iran-nuclear-access-security-council/)
- Samaa TV (https://www.samaa.tv/2087359238-iaea-finds-no-evidence-iran-rebuilding-nuclear-sites)
- INP News (https://www.inp.net.pk/news-detail/international/iaea-finds-no-evidence-iran-rebuilding-nuclear-sites)
- Times of Israel (https://timesofisrael.com/liveblog-october-28-2026)
- JFeed (https://www.jfeed.com/news/iran-blocks-iaea-inspectors-isfahan)
- Daily Caller (https://dailycaller.com/2026/10/28/iran-nuclear-sites-iaea-uranium/)
- Diplomacy and Law (https://www.diplomacyandlaw.com/post/iaea-iran-inspections)
- UN News (https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/10/1168664)
- Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/1/urgent-need-for-access-to-iranian-sites-cautions-un-nuclear-watchdog)