UK urges Iran to allow IAEA inspectors back to all nuclear sites
At the UN Security Council, Britain called renewed inspection access a first step toward rebuilding confidence in Iran’s nuclear programme as regional talks continued.
The UK urged Iran on 27 October to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back to all its nuclear sites, saying at a UN Security Council meeting in New York that renewed access was the first step toward rebuilding confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme, according to a British government statement. The call came as Tehran held talks with three regional countries but kept its nuclear programme off that meeting’s agenda.
In the UK’s Security Council statement, Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh, Britain’s permanent representative to the UN, said the IAEA was prepared to resume safeguards work in Iran at short notice. She called verification essential to restoring international confidence and urged other UN members to press Iran to meet its safeguards obligations.
Why Britain is pressing for inspection access
MacIntosh said the IAEA Board of Governors had referred Iran to the Security Council in September for continued non-compliance with its nuclear safeguards obligations. She described it as the board’s first such referral in two decades and said the board had determined in June 2025 that Iran was not complying with its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement.
The ambassador said Iran had accumulated more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% and that the stockpile had remained unaccounted for for more than a year. She said Iran had denied inspectors access to its most proliferation-sensitive nuclear sites. According to MacIntosh, the IAEA reported in June 2026 that it could not draw a safeguards conclusion about the nuclear material and considered that a proliferation concern. Those are the UK’s accounts of the stockpile, access and IAEA findings.
How the demand fits with regional talks
Reuters reported that Iranian Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei met Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on 27 October, a day after talks in Tehran with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. The three countries had signed a mutual defence pact in Mecca in August. Their visit was their first high-level contact with Iran since the war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February drew Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi movement into direct conflict.
According to Reuters’ account of Iranian state media, Khamenei and Rezaei discussed regional security, control of the Strait of Hormuz and ties with neighbouring countries. An Iranian official told Reuters that the nuclear programme would not be discussed with the visiting countries until Tehran’s conditions for ending the war were met. Reuters reported that those conditions included an end to a US blockade of Iranian ports and US sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Iran rejects Western concerns that its nuclear programme has a military purpose, Reuters reported.
Britain said it remained committed to a diplomatic solution that would ensure Iran never develops or acquires a nuclear weapon. It was not immediately clear whether Iran would grant the inspection access MacIntosh requested.
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Sources and context
- Iran must allow the return of IAEA inspectors to all nuclear sites: UK statement at the UN Security CouncilUK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office / GOV.UK
- Iran security chief meets Supreme Leader after talks with Mecca pact countriesReuters, republished by The Straits Times
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.