IRAN’S NUKESAnalysis of the IAEA’s Comprehensive Iran NPT Safeguards Report May 2025
The Trump administration’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was a gift to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, freeing Iran from that deal’s tight restrictions on developing nuclear weapons – a freedom which Iran has used to accelerate, unhindered, its rush toward the bomb. But Iran is still a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which bars member states from developing nuclear weapons. The recent IAEA report notes that Iran is in egregious violation of its NPT obligations, and that it has been engaging in an elaborate, ongoing cover-up of its nuclear weapons-related activities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on May 31, 2025, released a comprehensive report on Iran’s non-compliance with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards obligations. The report was requested by the Board of Governors in a November 2024 resolution.
The IAEA has been investigating Iran’s undeclared nuclear material, activities, and facilities for over two decades, with a new major investigation ongoing since 2019. The agency previously investigated Iran’s covert nuclear activities from 2002 to 2015, pausing from 2015-2018 while the Iran nuclear deal was in effect. With the evaluation of all safeguards-relevant information in 2018 and 2019, the IAEA identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and activities and requested answers.
As an NPT state party, the IAEA notes in its report, Iran is required to refrain from developing nuclear weapons (NPT Article II) and to disclose and permit the IAEA to apply safeguards over nuclear materials, activities, and facilities (NPT Article III). Pursuant to these obligations and under its comprehensive safeguards agreement (CSA), in light of potential violations, Iran must also cooperate with IAEA investigations, such as by permitting full access to sites, providing accurate technical explanations, and making available documentation, all with the aim of ensuring Iran’s nuclear material is devoted exclusively to peaceful uses.
Since 2019, the IAEA has made numerous efforts to engage Iran, including in high-level meetings and technical consultations. Yet what the IAEA describes in its latest report is an egregious failure by Iran to fulfill its obligations, as well as an elaborate, ongoing cover-up. The latter included Iran’s false explanations, denials, sanitization of sites, relocation of equipment and material, refusals to cooperate, and retributive actions such as de-designation of IAEA inspectors, among other tactics. In the new information, the IAEA obtained conclusive evidence that Iran had acquired its highly confidential documents, including the questions intended to be asked by the IAEA in upcoming inspections, which according to the IAEA report, “raises serious concerns regarding Iran’s spirit of cooperation and may undermine the effective application of safeguards in Iran.” How Iran obtained the safeguards confidential report was not discussed in the report.
Overall, the level of non-compliance raised in this report warrants an IAEA Board of Governors censure resolution and referral of Iran’s case to the UN Security Council.
Below is key new information from the IAEA’s report, as well as findings and recommendations.
