Published On 3/6/2026
Western diplomatic officials have warned that the risk of Iran seeking to acquire nuclear weapons is higher today than it was before the United States and Israel launched their first military attacks on it in mid-2025.
Bloomberg quoted officials’ warnings when they cited a secret document circulated within the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna this month.
According to officials, the International Agency has warned member states of new risks of the spread of nuclear weapons as a result of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is almost suitable for making nuclear bombs.
New dilemma
These warnings stem from the cessation of weekly inspections to which these materials were subjected by the International Agency to ensure that they are not used in making weapons, since the air attack on Iran in June 2025.
Bloomberg, citing high-ranking diplomats familiar with the agency’s confidential document, indicated that the circulating report explained how the US-Israeli war on Iran created new nuclear dilemmas that did not exist before, summed up in the fact that the longer nuclear materials remain outside the scope of the agency’s safeguards, the greater the risk of their being diverted to non-peaceful uses.
The IAEA “can now draw no conclusion about this nuclear material. This raises concerns about nuclear proliferation, as this nuclear material, which the IAEA has not been able to verify, contains a significant amount of highly enriched uranium,” the secret 119-page document said.
According to the Financial Post, inspections decreased by more than half last year after Iran imposed new restrictions following the Twelve-Day War, as observers have not yet returned to the damaged sites in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, where two shipments of low-enriched materials with a weight equivalent to 440.9 kilograms and 8,599.6 kilograms were last seen.
On June 8, the Board of Directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold a meeting in the Austrian capital, amid international anticipation for new information about the Iranian nuclear program.
Washington and Tehran are engaged in complex negotiations to reach an agreement that would lead to a permanent ceasefire and end the war in the Middle East.
Uncertainty has surrounded the course of the negotiations since mid-March, as US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he is on the verge of reaching an agreement that would end the fighting and allow negotiators to address thorny issues, including the future of the Iranian nuclear program.
Trump, who is under pressure due to his need to reduce fuel prices in the United States on the one hand and his refusal to make concessions to Iran on the other hand, said that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is his top priority, while Tehran constantly stresses that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Trump said in a podcast episode broadcast on Wednesday that Iran has agreed not to possess a nuclear weapon, and that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is participating in the negotiations.
