US Prepares IAEA Resolution Condemning Iran as Ceasefire Talks Continue

Washington has drafted a resolution condemning Iran for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors meeting next week, diplomats in Vienna said, opening a fresh front of pressure on Tehran even as the two capitals negotiate an extension of their bilateral ceasefire. The move, first reported by Reuters, risks complicating the delicate talks that could pave the way for broader discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme, which President Trump has insisted must never yield a weapon — a point Tehran says it has already accepted. The draft document has not yet been circulated, leaving its precise language unclear, but the signal alone has raised hackles in Moscow, where Russia’s envoy to the IAEA, Mikhail Ulyanov, warned the resolution “may provoke the Iranian side”.

The agency’s director-general, Rafael Grossi, told reporters in Vienna that the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles would be “at the centre of any possible agreement or understanding” with the Islamic Republic. Tehran has communicated to the IAEA that the material remains at the same location as before last year’s military strikes, which heavily damaged three enrichment facilities. Grossi emphasised that the issue is “first and foremost political” and that a technical assessment requires unfettered inspector access, which wartime conditions have prevented. The ceasefire has held long enough, he noted, for some nuclear sites to be revisited, but full monitoring remains impossible.

Viewed from Tehran, the diplomatic choreography is fraught. Iranian media on Saturday played down the US draft, focusing instead on Grossi’s remarks about inspections and the broader context of ceasefire negotiations. Separate reports, citing a Newsweek article, speculated that Washington was demanding the transfer of Iran’s uranium to a third country — China being mentioned as a possible guarantor — but a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Tehran flatly denied such claims. Analysts in the region note that Beijing’s role is being closely watched, given its ability to act as either a mediator or a potential repository under a future deal, though no firm proposal has emerged.

The IAEA board session thus arrives at a precarious juncture. The Trump administration appears to be pursuing a dual-track strategy: sustaining momentum in direct talks while marshalling international pressure to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Yet the Russian warning underscores the risk that a condemnatory resolution, even if symbolic, could derail the negotiations. With the precise status of Iran’s enriched uranium — estimated by some to be substantial — still unverified and the memory of last summer’s kinetic strikes fresh, the margin for miscalculation is thin. The next move will test whether diplomacy can withstand the gravitational pull of coercion.