Iran enriches uranium to a level close to what a bomb needs and says it will never build one. The United States and Israel say the ability is the threat, and have bombed the programme twice. The inspectors of the UN's nuclear agency no longer know where all of Iran's enriched uranium is.
The wider confrontation, its history and each side's full account: Iran in regional and international confrontation.
Where it stands · September 2026
On 9 September the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency referred Iran to the UN Security Council. Iran's nuclear chief was kept from the agency's meeting in Vienna on 14 September. On 25 September Iran ruled out nuclear concessions after a Hormuz offer. On 28 September the US president weighed sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for nuclear progress.
What the dispute is about
The treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons gives its members the right to nuclear energy and forbids them the bomb. It does not say how close to a bomb a member may come. Iran has enriched uranium to 60 percent, a level no power station needs, and holds enough of it for several weapons if enriched further. It says this is leverage, not a weapons programme. Its opponents demand that enrichment on Iranian soil end altogether; Iran calls that the one demand it will never meet. Israel, which makes the demand, has nuclear weapons, has never signed the treaty and admits no inspectors.
