Published On 20/11/2025
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Last update: 21:02 (Mecca time)
Today, Thursday, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution demanding Iran’s immediate cooperation regarding its nuclear facilities and its stockpile of enriched uranium. The decision angered Tehran, which responded by suspending an agreement it reached two months ago with the agency.
The resolution presented by the United States and the European Troika (France, Britain, and Germany) was adopted during the Board of Governors meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna, by a majority of 19 votes, against 3 opposition votes (Russia, China, and Niger), and 12 abstentions.
The resolution stipulates that Tehran demands immediate and full cooperation with the agency regarding the nuclear sites that were bombed last June, and the stockpile of enriched uranium that the agency has not been able to verify for months.
Iranian nuclear facilities, including Natanz and Fordow, were subjected to Israeli and American raids as part of an attack aimed at stopping Tehran’s nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump said that the US strikes completely eliminated the Iranian nuclear program, but intelligence leaks from Washington cast doubt on this announcement.
The agency estimates that, prior to the Israeli-American bombing, Iran had about 441 kilograms of enriched uranium to a purity of up to 60%, close to the 90% needed to manufacture nuclear weapons.
According to the IAEA’s scale, this amount of uranium is theoretically sufficient to manufacture 10 nuclear bombs if it is further enriched.
Following the Israeli and American attacks last June, Iran suspended cooperation with the IAEA and did not allow its inspectors to enter its nuclear facilities, but in September, it and the IAEA signed a cooperation agreement in Cairo.
Iran responds
The Iranian delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, denounced the Western decision regarding his country’s nuclear program, and said that it aims to exert illegal pressure on it.
Najafi stressed that the decision is based on what he described as a false and misleading narrative about the Iranian program, noting that the European Troika countries and the United States assume that Iran must continue to cooperate with the agency even when its facilities are being bombed, and this is contrary to reality, as he put it.
For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced that his country informed the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, that the Cairo Agreement is no longer valid in response to the decision of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Araqchi said – in a statement – that the Cairo Agreement has practically lost its role as a regulator of the relationship between Iran and the IAEA in the field of safeguards.
He continued that the European Troika countries and the United States ignored Iran’s good faith by presenting a draft resolution to the Board of Governors of the IAEA, stressing that it thus undermined the agency’s credibility and independence and disrupted the course of Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA.
The Iranian Foreign Minister confirmed that his country will not allow the IAEA to enter its nuclear facilities, which were bombed during the recent war with Israel, before reaching a concrete agreement.
Meanwhile, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said that France, Britain and Germany want to reopen diplomacy with Iran regarding its nuclear program.
It is noteworthy that last September, the three countries activated the “trigger mechanism,” which led to the re-imposition of UN sanctions on Iran.
Reuters quoted three diplomats as saying that the three countries hope to hold talks with Iran before the end of the year, but it is not yet clear whether Tehran is currently ready for that.
The United States, other Western countries, and Israel say that Iran is secretly seeking to possess nuclear weapons. This is denied by Tehran, which asserts that its nuclear program is peaceful and has no military dimensions.