Security Council splits over whether UN sanctions on Iran are in force as the UK demands IAEA inspectors’ return

The UN Security Council held its debate on Iran on 27 October with its members split over whether UN sanctions on Tehran have returned or have expired, according to the UN’s meetings coverage. The senior UN nuclear safety official who briefed the Council asked Iran to clarify outstanding questions about its nuclear programme, the UN service reported.

The meeting followed the referral of Iran to the Council by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the first such report in two decades. Our earlier report on the meeting set out the background to the referral.

The UN described “fault lines” between Council members who believe sanctions have “snapped back” into force and those who consider them expired. The full record of individual national statements was not available to us at the time of writing, and no Council decision was reported.

The British position

In a statement delivered in New York, Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN, said the IAEA Board’s step last month “reflects the gravity of the concern faced by the international community”. She said the referral followed the Board’s June 2025 finding that Iran was not complying with its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement.

MacIntosh said Iran has amassed more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, and that Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons to enrich to that level. In her words, there is “no credible civilian justification” for it. She added that the stockpile of highly enriched uranium has remained unaccounted for for more than a year, and that Iran has denied the IAEA the access needed to inspect its most proliferation-sensitive sites.

According to the UK statement, the IAEA reported in June 2026 that it could not reach a safeguards conclusion on this material and described the situation as a proliferation concern. MacIntosh said Director-General Rafael Grossi had again made clear that morning that the agency is prepared to resume safeguards activities in Iran at short notice.

As a first step, she said, Iran “must allow the return of IAEA inspectors to all nuclear sites”. The United Kingdom, she said, remains committed to a diplomatic solution that ensures Iran never develops or acquires a nuclear weapon.

What to watch

Iran has repeatedly said it is not building nuclear weapons. The dispute over whether the pre-2015 sanctions are in force is likely to shape how members treat any future Council product on Iran, but none has been announced. We will update this report when the UN publishes the full meeting record.