IAEA Report Finds No Major Change in Iran Nuclear Assessment After Three Months of Strikes

The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a confidential report to member states on Thursday stating it had made no major changes to its assessment of Iran's nuclear programme. The document is the first IAEA evaluation issued since the day before the United States and Israel began air strikes on Iran at the end of February.

It repeated earlier calls for Iran to explain the fate of stockpiles of enriched uranium that have remained unaccounted for since an earlier round of strikes last June.

The report noted that the IAEA has been unable to return to nuclear sites struck in the June campaign. It stated that Iran has not informed the agency of the current location or condition of its stocks of low- and highly enriched uranium, including material enriched to 60 percent purity.

The document described the lack of access for nearly a year as a matter of proliferation concern and a compliance issue under the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement. It added that the loss of continuity of knowledge over previously declared nuclear material needs to be addressed urgently.

The report comes ahead of next week's quarterly meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors. It was one of two confidential assessments issued Thursday and reviewed by Reuters. U.S. and Iranian officials have discussed a preliminary agreement that would defer nuclear issues to later talks. Iran's enriched uranium stockpile has remained a central point in those discussions.