Saudi Arabia urges Iran to cooperate with UN nuclear watchdog

“They demanded that we hand over all our enriched uranium and in exchange they give us a temporary relief of 90 days, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday.

“If we are to choose between the unreasonable demands of the Americans and the snapback, our choice is the snapback,” Pezeshkian added, hours before the return of UN sanctions against Tehran.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said Saturday that "the three European countries and the United States expected Iran to give up all its nuclear material or hand it over to them, in exchange for delaying the activation of the snapback mechanism by three or six months."

"This is the height of a brazen approach toward us, and we will not submit to such humiliation," Araghchi told Iran's state TV. "Iran will not accept the humiliating pressure over snapback."

The fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium (HEU) stockpile of 400 kg (882 pounds) remains under investigation, while Tehran claims it is trapped under rubble after US attacks on three nuclear sites in June.

After triggering the so-called snapback mechanism on August 28, the Europeans asked Iran to address concerns over the highly enriched uranium stockpile, cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, and engage in talks with the United States.

Iran accuses US of swaying Europeans

While talks with European leaders had produced some convergence, Washington’s stance remained irreconcilable, Pezeshkian said upon arrival in Tehran after a visit to New York.

"On the snapback mechanism, we apparently reached an agreement with Europe, but when they spoke with the United States, they came up with various excuses."

Barbara Slavin, a longtime Iran analyst, wrote in a post on X that Pezeshkian told a private meeting France had floated a similar idea, proposing Iran hand over its enriched uranium in return for just one month’s extension.

The so-called snapback mechanism stems from UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It allows any participant to reimpose sanctions if Iran is judged in “significant non-performance.”

The United States, Britain, France and Germany argue that Iran’s growing uranium stockpile and failure to resolve International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concerns meet that threshold.

A May 2025 IAEA safeguards report concluded Iran had concealed activities, sanitized sites, and retained undeclared nuclear materials, leading to its referral to the Security Council. The vote has now restored suspended measures.

On September 23, Iran's Supreme Leader reiterated that Tehran does not need and seek to develop nuclear weapons, so it enriches uranium to up to 60% purity, unlike nuclear-armed countries that enrich it up to 90% purity.

"The threat of new strikes on Iran remains and as informed sources say, is even being discussed in practical terms," Russia's foreign minister said Saturday, calling it "quite indicative."

He said the military threat is synchronized with what he called a Western plan to economically "strangulate" Iran, citing their rejection of a Russian-Chinese bid to delay the snapback of sanctions.

"This is a deliberate operation aimed at starting the next stage of strangling the Islamic Republic of Iran economically, financially and so on," Sergei Lavrov told reporters in New York, according to Interfax.

Israel may launch a new attack on Iran within three months if the current trends continue, defense and security analyst Farzin Nadimi told Iran International.

“I think that within a maximum of three months, if such a decision is made, it will be carried out. If things continue on this path,” said Nadimi, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute.

Both sides had drawn lessons from the 12-day conflict in June and neither sought a prolonged or costly war, he added.

Any Israeli decision, he said, would rest on advance planning and readiness of defenses. “If Israel makes such a decision, it must prepare a set of assumptions, and its defensive capabilities must be more ready.”

Nadimi pointed to recent US military deployments as evidence of enhanced preparation.

“Reports have indicated that the THAAD battery, which the United States had deployed in Israel, has now been increased. In other words, four launchers have been added to the existing six,” he said.

“All Iranian officials have been ordered by the National Security Council to designate successors a few ranks after themselves so that if something happens, the country will not be left in uncertainty," the NSC secretary said on Saturday, three months after Israeli strikes killed many high-ranking Iranian authorities.

The Iranian parliament will debate withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on Sunday and decide on it, a senior lawmaker said.

"The issue of building a nuclear bomb will be considered separately at a later stage, and we can place it on the agenda," the IRGC general-turned-lawmaker Esmail Kowsari told the state-run YJC.