US and allies want IAEA board to report Iran to UN Security Council, diplomats say

The US launched an air war against Tehran ⁠on February 28 in which, together with Israel, it destroyed or badly damaged Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities.

Iran has not let International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors return to the bombed sites since then or verify what remains of its stocks of enriched uranium, some of which was enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.

A resolution by the IAEA's 35-nation board reporting Iran to the Security Council would also be the culmination of a standoff over IAEA access to those sites, since the board has passed two resolutions in the past year ⁠demanding Iran declare its enriched uranium stocks and grant the IAEA full access to verify them.

A draft text for the resolution has yet to be formally submitted to the board and negotiations between countries over the exact wording are ongoing, diplomats said. A draft is usually formally submitted early ⁠in the week of a board meeting.

As a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology, including enrichment, for peaceful purposes. Iran says it would never produce nuclear ⁠weapons. It is, however, the only country to enrich to 60% without making a bomb.

The amount it has enriched to that level is "a matter of serious concern" to the IAEA.The ⁠IAEA believes well over 200 kg of that highly enriched uranium has survived the bombardments and is held in a tunnel complex at Isfahan and at the Natanz facility.