What Iran actually has left after the strikes – CNN

After years of restrictions on IAEA inspectors and military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, the international agency has effectively lost continuous oversight of Iran's nuclear program. 23 countries on the IAEA Board of Governors supported referring the dossier to the UN Security Council. Experts fear Tehran could develop nuclear weapons within the next three years.

After years of restrictions on IAEA inspectors and military strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities, the international agency has effectively lost continuous oversight of Iran's nuclear program. On September 9, 23 countries on the IAEA Board of Governors supported referring the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council. Russia, China, and Niger voted against it. Of particular concern is that the IAEA no longer has a complete picture of what is happening in Iran. Inspectors were unable to freely visit nuclear facilities for a long time, and the agency's cameras and other equipment were gradually dismantled or turned off. In 2023, an undeclared centrifuge configuration was discovered at the Fordow facility, where uranium was enriched to 83.7 percent. In June 2025, the IAEA officially declared that Iran had violated its commitments. Soon after, Israel struck Iran, and then the US attacked nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. After the start of a new military campaign in February 2026, inspectors were virtually denied access to Iranian nuclear facilities. Physicist James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment estimates the probability of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons within the next three years as 50-50. The main problem is the inability to reliably assess what capabilities the country has left after the strikes.

What Iran actually has left after the strikes – CNN