Iran, Russia and China have told the International Atomic Energy Agency that its monitoring and reporting linked to the 2015 nuclear deal should end following the expiry of the UN resolution that endorsed it, Iranian media said on Friday.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said the three countries sent a joint letter to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi arguing that Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), formally expired on Oct. 18.
He said the letter followed a previous joint message the countries had sent to the UN secretary-general and the president of the Security Council, declaring the resolution terminated. “All provisions of Resolution 2231 have now lapsed, and attempts by European countries to reactivate sanctions through the so-called snapback mechanism are illegal and without effect,” Gharibabadi said, according to state media.
In their letter, the ambassadors of Iran, Russia and China wrote: “With this termination, the reporting mandate of the Director General of the IAEA concerning verification and monitoring under Security Council Resolution 2231 has come to an end.” The letter added that the IAEA Board of Governors’ decision of Dec. 15, 2015, which authorized verification and monitoring for up to 10 years or until the agency issued a broader conclusion on Iran’s nuclear program, whichever came first, “remains valid and constitutes the sole guidance which the IAEA Secretariat is obliged to follow.”
According to the three governments, “as of 18 October 2025, this matter will be automatically removed from the Board of Governors’ agenda, and no further action will be required in this context.”
Iran, Russia and China have maintained that the resolution’s expiry removes Iran’s nuclear file from the Security Council’s agenda and ends the IAEA’s mandate tied to it.
Grossi urges diplomacy, notes Iran stays in NPT
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said earlier this week that diplomacy must prevail to avoid renewed conflict and noted that Iran had not withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty despite tensions. He said continued cooperation between Iran and the agency was vital to prevent escalation.
Grossi told Le Temps newspaper on Wednesday that Iran holds enough uranium to build ten nuclear weapons if it enriched further, though there is no evidence it seeks to do so. He said Israeli and US airstrikes in June had caused “severe” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, but that the country’s technical know-how “has not vanished.”
Tehran and the IAEA have yet to agree on a framework to resume full inspections at the bombed sites. Grossi said Tehran was allowing inspectors access “in dribs and drabs” for security reasons, adding that efforts were continuing to rebuild trust and restore routine monitoring.
Water inflow to dams stood at about 780 million cubic meters as of Oct. 18, a 39% decline from the 1.29 billion cubic meters recorded a year earlier, according to data reported by ILNA news agency. Despite a 29% cut in water discharge to conserve supplies, total storage in the country’s reservoirs fell to 17.7 billion cubic meters from 23.3 billion, leaving national reserves around one-third full.
Twenty-two major dams are in critical condition, holding less than 15% of their designed capacity, wrote ILNA. In Tehran province, the five dams supplying the capital’s drinking and agricultural water are among the hardest hit. Amir Kabir Dam is at 11% capacity, an 80% drop from last year, while Lar Dam has fallen to just 2%, and Latyan, Mamlu and Taleghan dams each recorded declines of more than a third.
Reservoirs in other key provinces, Khuzestan in the southwest, Fars and Kerman in the south, and East and West Azarbaijan in the northwest, have registered deficits ranging from 20% to 70%, while some dams in Golestan province in the north, including Voshmgir and Bustan, have run completely dry, the report said.
Average rainfall since late September has been just 1.9 millimeters, far below the long-term average of 56 millimeters, and no measurable rain has been recorded in 21 provinces, including Tehran, Isfahan, Khuzestan, Kerman, and Kurdistan. Officials have warned of growing risks to both drinking water and crop irrigation in the coming months.
Drought altering rural life in Isfahan
In the central province of Isfahan, the water crisis has gone beyond agriculture to reshape entire communities. “Water scarcity has had deep effects on land subsidence, migration, and the changing character of rural areas,” said Gholamreza Goudarzi, head of Iran’s Statistical Center, in remarks published on Friday.
Census data collected during last year’s agricultural survey, he said, show that prolonged drought has altered crop diversity and forced some residents to abandon villages.
Experts warn that without immediate conservation measures, technological upgrades in irrigation, and coordinated drought management, Iran faces escalating water shortages that could endanger both rural livelihoods and urban supply in the months ahead.
