Key facts
- Grossi wrote that the agency lost continuity of knowledge on previously declared highly enriched uranium inventories more than a year ago.
- The IAEA is not able to conclude there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful activities, Grossi wrote.
- Grossi said the agency is fully prepared to resume safeguards activities in Iran at short notice.
- Iran ruled out a return to regular monitoring under the present circumstances, per Grossi's report.
- The Iran nuclear issue is on the agenda of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna the week after November 13, 2026.
Iran has ruled out any return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and continues to divert the agency's attempts to access and verify its stockpile of enriched uranium, according to a restricted report by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi circulated in Vienna on November 13, 2026 and seen by Bloomberg News.
"It is more than a year since the agency lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of highly-enriched uranium," Grossi wrote. "The agency is not able to conclude that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful nuclear activities," he said in the report.
Grossi wrote that the agency is "fully prepared to resume its safeguards activities in Iran at short notice," but that Iran ruled out a return to regular monitoring "under the present circumstances."
Iran had reluctantly cooperated with some inspections in recent years but shut out access after U.S. and Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic in June 2025. In a report to the IAEA circulated among diplomats in the week before November 13, 2026, Iran argued it is not obliged to allow monitoring and verification while under threat from U.S. attacks.
In September, Grossi called on Iran "to engage with the Agency constructively in order to make possible the full and effective implementation of Agency safeguards in Iran and to fulfill its responsibilities under the NPT Safeguards Agreement." The Iran nuclear issue is on the agenda of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna the week after November 13, 2026.
The report said the U.S. and Iran are nowhere near any deal that would ease the conflict in the Middle East and disruptions to energy supplies from the Persian Gulf.