The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned it is increasingly concerned about being denied access to an underground Iranian uranium enrichment facility whose location, condition and nuclear contents remain unclear.
Iran has acknowledged the existence of the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant, known as IFEP, but refused an IAEA request for inspectors to visit the site in February.
In a quarterly report to member states, the watchdog said: “The Agency does not know IFEP’s exact location, status for safeguards purposes or whether it contains nuclear material.”
Tehran said the refusal was justified by “acts of aggression” and continuing threats, which it claimed had made normal safeguards inspections “legally untenable and materially impracticable”.
The decision followed US and Israeli missile strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, including the Isfahan complex, in June 2025.
The IAEA said it had since observed regular vehicle movements near the entrance to a tunnel complex at Isfahan in satellite imagery. The agency believes some of Iran’s roughly 900-pound stockpile of highly enriched uranium may have been buried there after the strikes.
In September, the watchdog reported the activity around the tunnels. It then asked Iran to provide access to inspectors “as soon as possible”, but said Tehran had continued to refuse, citing the attacks on its territory.
Iran refuses renewed nuclear inspections
The Trump administration has presented Iran’s nuclear programme as the main justification for the war, while giving differing accounts of whether Tehran might surrender its remaining uranium stockpile.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this week that “more than 80 percent of their nuclear industrial base — gone”, adding: “CRAZY ISLAMISTS IN TEHRAN WILL NEVER EVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
Iran has agreed to nothing regarding its uranium stockpiles, enrichment programme or renewed IAEA inspections. It has refused to negotiate with the United States on the issue until a formal ceasefire is in place.
A senior Iranian security official said on Wednesday that Tehran would “not remove even a single particle of enriched nuclear material from the country”. President Trump said on Thursday: “We don’t need a deal with Iran.”
