The United Nations nuclear watchdog has referred Iran to the Security Council for non-compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in the first such move in two decades.
The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made up of 35 member countries, passed the resolution at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday. The measure was tabled by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
At least 23 countries voted in favour. Russia, China and Niger voted against, while eight countries abstained.
The resolution notes "with grave concern Iran's continued non-compliance with its obligations" and "reiterates its call upon Iran to urgently remedy its non-compliance." It asks IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to formally report Iran to the Security Council.
Despite the referral, new sanctions are considered unlikely. Russia and China, both veto-holding members of the Security Council, are allies of Tehran and voted against the resolution.
The IAEA has been denied access to Iran's nuclear facilities since the United States and Israel carried out strikes on those sites during a 12-day conflict in June 2025. The facilities were targeted again when a new conflict launched by Israel and the United States began on 28 February.
Iran says the attacks on its facilities, including uranium enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordo, are the reason it has not permitted IAEA inspectors to visit. Tehran has also stated that restoring inspection access must be part of a broader settlement with the United States and Israel to end the war.
Grossi told the board on Monday that the situation needed to be addressed urgently. "The agency's lack of information about these facilities and associated nuclear material and our inability to conduct verification activities at these facilities is a matter of serious proliferation concern," he said.
The IAEA is reported to suspect that Iran holds approximately 400 to 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. According to senior US officials, Iran had roughly 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent at the start of the latest conflict. Separately, the IAEA has estimated the stockpile at around 400 kilograms. Uranium enriched to 60 percent can be further processed relatively quickly to reach the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material, from which, according to reports, as many as 10 nuclear weapons could potentially be manufactured.
Iran, as a signatory to the NPT, is prohibited from producing nuclear weapons and has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes. The United States, Israel and several European countries have questioned that claim, citing concerns that Tehran may be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
The European Union, in a statement issued Wednesday, accused Iran of suspending cooperation with the IAEA and refusing to allow inspections to resume. "It is critical and urgent that Iran provides the IAEA with updated verifiable declarations about the quantity and whereabouts of nuclear material and related activities and allows inspections to resume in all its nuclear facilities," the bloc said.
Iran had repeatedly warned against passing such a resolution. Following the vote, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi condemned the decision. "They attack Iran's safeguarded nuclear facilities, disrupt the normal process of verification, and then use that very disruption as a pretext to issue a resolution," he wrote in a post on X.
Iran's mission to the United Nations also denounced the move. "The current situation is created solely because of the criminal acts of aggression by the U.S. and Israeli regime. The delusional objective of the U.S. to force the great Iranian nation into 'surrender' and to plunder its oil will never happen," the mission said in a post on X.
