The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board referred Iran to the Security Council on Wednesday for the first time in two decades, escalating international pressure on Tehran over its failure to cooperate with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
Twenty-three countries on the IAEA's 35-member board of governors voted for the resolution at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.
China, Russia and Niger opposed it, while eight countries abstained and one didn't vote as it was in arrears. The resolution was put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
The diplomatic move has been under consideration since June 2025 when the IAEA board found Iran officially in noncompliance with its nonproliferation obligations because of Tehran's lack of cooperation in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at various undeclared sites in Iran.
Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide further evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Iran says that it's not pursuing nuclear weapons, and its program is entirely peaceful.
