The U.N. atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at various undeclared sites in Iran.
Twenty-three countries on the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors voted for the 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 a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at various undeclared sites in Iran.
Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Iran says that it’s not pursuing nuclear weapons, and its program is entirely peaceful.
Iran’s referral to the U.N. 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.
Reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council now shifts the responsibility to a higher authority that is able to enact further measures, including sanctions or asset freezes.
But specific punitive measures by the U.N. are unlikely in this case since Iran’s allies Russia and China hold veto power on the U.N. Security Council.
