The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday (September 9, 2026) reported Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites.

Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003. Iran says that it’s not pursuing nuclear weapons and that its programme is entirely peaceful.

Reporting Iran to the Security Council opens the country to possible sanctions and asset freezes, though such punitive measures are unlikely because Iran’s allies Russia and China hold veto power on the panel.

Twenty-three countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member board of governors voted for Wednesday’s resolution at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

China, Russia and Niger opposed it, while eight countries abstained and one didn’t vote as it was in arrears, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-door vote.

The resolution was put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

The diplomatic move has been under consideration since June 2025, when the IAEA board found Iran officially in noncompliance with its nonproliferation obligations because of Tehran’s lack of cooperation in the investigation.

Iran’s referral to the UN Security Council comes amid a further escalation in the U.S. war with Iran.

The U.S. this week destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, and Tehran hit back at American targets in Jordan, the latest burst of back-and-forth strikes that have lurched the sides back toward open hostilities in a more than 6-month-old war.

The draft resolution, which was seen by The Associated Press, requested the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi “to report this resolution and the previously adopted resolutions … to all Members of the Agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the IAEA Statute.”

The resolution also reiterated its call upon Iran “to urgently remedy its non-compliance” with previous agreements and to take steps deemed necessary by the IAEA to assure “the non-diversion of nuclear material”. Since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June 2025, Iran hasn’t given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that were affected by the strikes.

The IAEA also has been unable to verify the status of Iran’s stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing. According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponise its programme, IAEA chief Grossi warned in an interview last year with the AP. He said that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon.

The United States and Iran have reached an interim deal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran’s President signed the agreement on Wednesday (June 17, 2026), seeking to end the West Asia conflict, with Tehran agreeing to dilute its enriched uranium in return for large-scale economic relief.

Under the agreement, Washington has committed to immediately waive oil sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. The deal also states that once a final agreement is reached on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, the U.S. will facilitate the release of a $300 billion reconstruction fund backed by regional nations.

Iran’s nuclear programme dates back to the 60s, with Tehran maintaining that the programme is intended for peaceful civilian purposes — a claim refuted by the U.S. and other Western nations.

Here is a timeline of tensions surrounding Iran’s atomic programme:

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution Friday (September 19, 2025) on whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, as European officials warn Tehran that time is running out to come to a diplomatic resolution ahead of next week’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.

The resolution put forth by South Korea, the current president of the 15-member council, would require at least nine votes to halt the sanctions from taking effect at the end of the month as outlined by Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Diplomats have indicated that, despite differing views, there is not enough support to avoid all sanctions against Iran without any conditions.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom moved last month to trigger the “snapback mechanism,” which automatically reimposes all U.N. sanctions that were in effect before the nuclear deal. Those penalties included a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development, asset freezes, travel bans and a ban on producing nuclear-related technology.

The process is designed to be veto-proof unless the U.N.’s most powerful body agrees to stop it.

Over the last several weeks, intensified diplomacy between Iran and the European countries has taken place, but without a resolution so far and indications that sanctions were likely.

When asked in an interview Thursday on Israel’s Channel 12 whether “snapback” was a done deal, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Yes, I think so because the latest news we had from the Iranians are not serious.”

German and European Union leaders had warned Iran in a call Wednesday that it had yet to take the necessary action to stop the reimposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which is already reeling from a 12-day war and a decades-long financial crisis.

“The window for finding a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear issue is closing really fast,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement. “Iran must show credible steps towards addressing the demands of France, U.K. and Germany, and this means demonstrating full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allowing inspections of all nuclear sites without delay.”

In a statement issued hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi again asserted that the reimposition of U.N. sanctions was “lacking any legal or logical justification.”

He also pointed to the fact that Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog earlier reached a deal mediated by Egypt to grant the IAEA access to all Iranian nuclear sites and for Tehran to report on the whereabouts of all its nuclear material.

Details of the agreement were not immediately released. In an address last week to his agency’s board of governors in Vienna, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said the document “provides for a clear understanding for the procedures of inspection notifications and their implementation.”

The agreement “includes all facilities and installations in Iran and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities including the nuclear material present at those,” Grossi added, noting it will “open the way for the respective inspections and access” without specifying when that would happen.

A 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June saw both the Israelis and the Americans bomb Iranian nuclear sites, throwing into question the status of Tehran’s stockpile of uranium enriched nearly to weapons-grade levels.

Using the “snapback” mechanism will likely heighten tensions between Iran and the West. It’s unclear how Iran will respond, given that in the past, officials have threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, potentially following North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.