The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday formally declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
The resolution cited Iran’s failure to cooperate with the investigations into undeclared nuclear material and activities, saying that Iran has not provided “technically credible explanations” for uranium traces found at several undeclared sites, despite multiple resolutions and years of outreach by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"(The board) finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," said the IAEA board resolution text seen by Reuters.
“The Board deeply regrets that, despite repeated calls from the Board and many opportunities offered, Iran has failed to cooperate fully with the Agency, as required by its Safeguards Agreement,” the four-page resolution added.
In its board-mandated comprehensive report published on May 31, the IAEA concluded that three of the four locations in question had been part of a previously undeclared, structured nuclear program conducted by Iran up until the early 2000s, and that some activities had involved the use of undeclared nuclear material.
Both US intelligence and the IAEA have long assessed that Iran operated a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons program that was halted in 2003, although limited activities are believed to have continued for several years after.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said this week that the agency’s findings were broadly consistent with those assessments.
Iran continues to deny that it has ever pursued nuclear weapons.
Potential actionat UN Security Council
While the resolution does not immediately refer Iran to the UN Security Council, it opens the door for such a step, saying the matter is “within the competence” of the Council and that the Board will “address the timing and content” of a potential report to the UN.
The diplomats told Reuters that a second resolution would be required to make such a referral—similar to the process that followed the 2005 non-compliance declaration which led to a referral in February 2006.
Iran’s pattern of non-compliance
The text outlines a years-long pattern of obstruction and non-cooperation by Tehran. The IAEA added that Iran had repeatedly “sanitized locations” and “provided inaccurate explanations,” which the agency said appeared consistent with concealment efforts.
Specifically, the IAEA concluded that Iran had failed to declare nuclear material and related activities at three locations: Lavisan-Shian (Lavizan), Varamin, and Turquzabad. According to the agency, these sites were part of “an undeclared, structured program carried out by Iran until the early 2000s,” with some activities involving undeclared nuclear material.
“The Agency is not in a position to determine whether the nuclear material at these undeclared locations has been consumed, mixed with other declared material, or is still outside of safeguards,” the resolution said.
In a particularly stark passage, the resolution says Iran “retained unknown nuclear material and/or heavily contaminated equipment” at Turquzabad between 2009 and 2018, adding that these items were later removed and the whereabouts of which remain unknown.
IAEA warns against escalation
The resolution lays out urgent actions Tehran must take to avoid further escalation, including providing credible explanations for uranium particles found at undeclared sites, informing the IAEA of the current location of nuclear material and contaminated equipment, and allowing full access to relevant locations for sampling and inspection.
“The Board reaffirms its decision that it is essential and urgent… that Iran act to fulfil its legal obligations and clarify all outstanding Safeguards issues without delay,” it said.
The resolution stressed support for diplomacy: “The Board stresses its support for a diplomatic solution… including the talks between the United States and Iran,” and calls on all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy.
The resolution comes at a time of heightened tensions, with the US evacuating staff based in the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous as Washington will not let Iran have nuclear weapons.
The report comes as US-Iran indirect talks appear to stall. The sixth round will be held on Sunday in Muscat, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday.
In a statement delivered at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, the EU said Iran’s nuclear trajectory poses serious proliferation risks and accused Tehran of gaining irreversible knowledge through its expanding uranium enrichment program.
“The risk of a nuclear proliferation crisis in the region is increasing as a result of Iran’s escalating nuclear trajectory," the statement read.
“Iran’s unabated nuclear advances over the last five years are of utmost concern,” the EU said. “These actions have no credible civilian justification and carry very significant proliferation-related risks.”
Citing the IAEA’s latest report, the EU said that Iran is now producing more than one Significant Quantity of uranium enriched to 60% each month. A "significant quantity" of highly enriched uranium is defined by the agency as the amount of nuclear material where the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive cannot be excluded.
Iran is currently stockpiling 60-percent enriched uranium, which can be quickly refined to the 90% threshold required for nuclear weapons. Estimates suggest Iran could achieve this level within weeks.
Iranian officials are vocal about weapons, EU warns
The EU further warned that former Iranian officials have made public statements about the country having all capabilities to assemble a nuclear weapon, deepening suspicions about Tehran’s intentions.
"The statements made by former high-level Iranian officials about Iran having all capabilities to assemble a nuclear weapon raise grave concerns about Iran’s intentions,” the EU said without elaborating. “Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to produce and accumulate highly enriched uranium in significantly increased amounts.”
In the past few years, Iranian officials have become increasingly explicit about the country’s readiness to produce nuclear weapons and the potential abandonment of its long-standing opposition to them.
Islamic Republic officials say that according to a fatwa (Islamic decree) by the Supreme Leader, the construction of an atomic bomb is not on Tehran's agenda. Experts note such rulings can be reversed.
Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Ali Khamenei and head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said on several occasions that Iran “already has the technical capabilities to produce weapons” and would revise its military doctrine if faced with an existential threat.
His remarks in November followed similar statements by former nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who said Iran has crossed all technological thresholds needed for a bomb.
Parliamentarian Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani explicitly urged the decision-makers to escalate enrichment and begin weapon production, arguing further sanctions are unlikely to change Iran’s strategic calculus.
Calls for weaponization have also emerged on media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards amid rising regional tensions.
Iran’s cooperation with IAEA
The EU also condemned Iran’s decision to cease implementation of monitoring measures under the 2015 nuclear deal and to remove IAEA surveillance equipment, actions that it said have irreparably disrupted oversight.
“The agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium concentrate, which it will not be possible to restore. This has detrimental implications for the agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” the EU said.
While expressing support for a diplomatic solution, the EU urged Iran to reverse course and return to compliance with its nuclear-related commitments.
“We strongly urge Iran to return to the provisional implementation of the Additional Protocol, to ratify it, and to resume implementation of all JCPOA-related verification measures.”
The EU also called on Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA and expressed support for Director General Rafael Grossi’s efforts to re-establish monitoring access. “Timely and full cooperation with the IAEA remains absolutely crucial,” the EU said.
The statement was endorsed by multiple European countries, including Norway, Ukraine, and North Macedonia.
The EU also requested that the IAEA’s latest report on Iran be made public.
Iran should implement NPT additional protocol, US says
Later in the session, the United States also called on Iran to halt its accelerating nuclear activities, warning that its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels lacks any credible civilian justification and raises serious proliferation concerns.
US chargé d’affaires Howard Solomon said the IAEA's latest report makes clear that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%, a level with no valid civilian purpose.
“Iran continues to accelerate its nuclear activities without any credible civilian justification,” Solomon told the Board of Governors. “The Director General’s report is an impartial statement of verifiable facts.”
“Iran now has a clear opportunity to build confidence… by implementing the Additional Protocol, not limiting inspections,” Solomon said.
The Additional Protocol to Iran's Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreement, signed in 2003, granted the UN watchdog broader rights of access and more detailed information on Iran's nuclear activities.
Although Iran never formally ratified it, it implemented the Additional Protocol from 2003 to 2006 before announcing it would no longer do so. In January 2016, Iran resumed provisional implementation of the Protocol in line with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.
However, in February 2021, Iran suspended its implementation—at the direction of its parliament— nearly three years after Trump pulled out of the accord and adopted its so-called maximum pressure sanctions.
Washington voiced its commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, with Solomon saying that the US is “negotiating in good faith” toward a diplomatic resolution.
“This path forward starts with Iran ceasing its escalatory nuclear activities,” Solomon said.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said the desert zone, now designated a restricted military area, hosts the core of what it called the Kavir Plan—a successor to the earlier Amad project.
The United States accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon as part of the shadowy Amad Project scrapped before 2004, an effort Washington says was overseen by Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND).
“Development, testing and nuclear weapons activities (are) hidden deep in the desert, under intense security measures,” the group’s spokesperson said at a press conference in Washington DC.
The announcement came as Tehran and Washington are negotiating over Iran's nuclear program to reach a deal to curb the program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Washington has assessed that Iran is not building nuclear weapons and its Supreme Leader has not approved them but recent discourse in Tehran urging the acquisition a bomb is emboldening advocates for such a move.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iranian negotiators have become “much more aggressive” in recent weeks, confirming nonetheless that the sixth round of talks would take place this week.
Kavir Plan
NCRI’s leading faction, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), said it had obtained new evidence from inside Iran.
MeK spokesperson Alireza Jafarzadeh said the Kavir Plan involves at least six sites in Semnan province—Shahrud, Eyvanaki, Semnan, Sanjarian, Sorkheh Hesar and Parchin site in coordination with the SPND headquarters in Tehran—all directed by the Ministry of Defense and Revolutionary Guards.
“The Kavir Plan is not just a replacement for the Amad Plan, but it’s a more advanced, more sophisticated and more secure plan than the original one,” Jafarzadeh said.
According to NCRI, SPND serves as the coordinating body for Kavir activities. SPND was named in a 2011 IAEA report and sanctioned by the US in 2014 for proliferation efforts.
Jafarzadeh said over 400 nuclear specialists have been transferred from Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to SPND operations under the Defense Ministry.
Among the sites, Shahrud was identified as a launch complex for Ghiam-100 solid-fuel missiles, allegedly disguised as a satellite facility. Sanjarian focused on explosive bridge wire (EBW) detonators—components critical for weaponizing a bomb, the opposition group added.
Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons, dismissing MeK reports as fabrications.
"Building nuclear warheads"
The NCRI maintains that the Kavir Plan mirrors the Amad Plan’s goals—specifically, building five nuclear warheads designed for Shahab-3 missiles.
In 2002, the NCRI revealed for the first time a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water plant at Arak. In 2003, the group also disclosed the Lavizan-Shian Technological Research Center in northeastern Tehran as an undeclared nuclear site.
The Lavizan-Shian site was cited again in the UN nuclear watchdog’s May 2025 report for noncompliance and the presence of undeclared nuclear material.
Shayan Samiee, a national security expert, said the new report would heighten political pressure.
“I doubt that the intelligence and security apparatus of the US and Europe had no clue about this information. Surely they did,” he told Iran International TV.
“This report will put pressure on the House and Senate to push President Trump to either shut down negotiations with Iran or adopt a tougher stance.”
On Monday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had acquired sensitive documents linked to Israel’s nuclear program.
Tehran warned it will use those files to hit Israel’s clandestine nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacks Iran.