VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a US-backed resolution on Wednesday telling Iran to declare its remaining enriched uranium stocks and let inspectors verify them, which could complicate Washington’s talks with Tehran.

The move came within hours of the US and Iran trading military strikes after US President Donald Trump said Iran had downed a US Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli and US attacks in June of last year destroyed or badly damaged Iranian uranium-enrichment plants but much of the enriched uranium they produced, including material close to weapons-grade, is thought to have survived.

Iran still has not informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the fate of that material, or let IAEA inspectors return to the bombed sites to check. The US led the push for the resolution, but Iran has called it “whitewashing military aggression”, since inspectors had access before the strikes.

Tehran accuses UN watchdog of ‘whitewashing’ US attacks on its N-sites

The resolution text submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany was passed with 21 votes in favour, three against and 10 abstentions, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said. The countries opposing were Russia, China and Niger, they said. “The Israeli regime’s and America’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities halted verification activities and forced Agency inspectors to leave Iran for safety reasons,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X before the vote by the Board of Governors.

“Now, America seeks to turn the consequences of its illegal attack into a case against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Gharibabadi added.

Iran’s mission to the IAEA had warned the board to be “cautious on the path forward”. Iran bristles at resolutions against it, and has responded to previous ones by escalating its atomic activities or scaling back cooperation with the IAEA.

The resolution said Iran should “provide the Agency with complete information on nuclear material inventories” and grant the IAEA the access it needs to verify that “without delay”.

‘Counter-productive’

A key aim of Trump’s is removing Iran’s enriched uranium, particularly the 440.9 kg enriched to up to 60pc purity, a short step from the ro­­u­­ghly 90pc of weapons grade, the IAEA estimates Iran had until the first Israeli strikes on June 13 of last year.

That is enough, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. How much of it remains is unclear.

Iran suspended cooperation with the IAEA then and inspectors have not seen the material since. Western nations say the information and access is crucial now to determining whether uranium has been diverted.

The agency said in a report ahead of the board meeting that Iran’s refusal to allow access was a “proliferation concern”. Iran’s ambassador at the United Nations in Vienna, Reza Najafi, rejected the new resolution as “counter-productive”, “politically motivated” and “legally flawed”.

He warned of fallout on the already fraught talks with US negotiators on ending the Middle East war. The vote “cannot help and, would indeed be counterproductive to the current situation,” Najafi said.

“It further complicates the volatile situation, volatile ceasefire, and the unfinished negotiations between Iran and the US.” He added: “We have warned about the consequences of such a wrongful act by the US and its supporters.” The IAEA board adopted a resolution in November calling on Iran to cooperate with nuclear inspectors.

Since the Middle East war erupted with US-Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran has negotiated with the United States but resisted demands to give up its nuclear programme. Western countries and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2026