Tehran Cites US Attack Threats and Demands Confidentiality Over $20 Million Bounty
The International Atomic Energy Agency circulated a confidential report to member states Friday. Iran informed the United Nations nuclear watchdog this month that discussions on resuming monitoring cannot proceed while the country faces military attack threats; since Israeli and US airstrikes hit Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, inspectors have been unable to verify Iran's near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile.
The IAEA report seen by the Associated Press and AFP on Friday said Iran pointed to warnings from the US president threatening armed strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. The IAEA report stated the deadlock will persist "until the root causes of the present situation are addressed and the essential requirements for normal safeguards implementation are restored."; Tehran reaffirmed its commitment to resume full safeguards implementation once legal and practical conditions allow. In separate correspondence to Vienna, Iranian officials raised alarms over a US reward offer of up to $20 million for intelligence regarding Iran's nuclear program and urged the watchdog to preserve confidentiality.
Since the 12-day conflict in June 2025, Iran has barred IAEA inspectors from bombed nuclear complexes; over the past 17 months, inspectors have only been permitted inside the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where a team visited from September 12 to September 15 and the reactor runs on Russian-supplied uranium enriched to 4.5 percent. The IAEA expressed concern over the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant, which Iran first disclosed before the June 2025 airstrikes began; inspectors were scheduled to visit on the day bombing started, forcing cancellation. In Friday's report, the agency acknowledged it does not know the facility's location or whether it holds nuclear material. According to IAEA records, Iran maintains 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity, and under standard agency guidelines, material should be verified every month.
