Iran Permanent Mission to the United Nations told reporters in New York on 2 May that there is 'no legal limit' on the level of uranium enrichment, provided it is conducted under IAEA supervision1. The IAEA is the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations watchdog tasked with verifying that nuclear material is not diverted to weapons. Iran's mission added that its 'entire stockpile of enriched uranium has been under full supervision of the IAEA and there has been no report of any diversion'. The statement is the first explicit Iranian legal claim of unlimited enrichment rights since the war began.
The Majlis voted 221-0 on 11 April to suspend all IAEA cooperation, and the Agency has had no on-site access since the Israeli strikes. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told the Associated Press on 29 April that 18 containers of 60%-enriched uranium were sealed in the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility tunnel in June 2025 and are 'likely still' there, with no inspector confirmation since. The mission claims supervision as the legal foundation; the parliament vote and the Isfahan lockout removed supervision in practice. The two positions cannot both be operative.
Tehran is reserving a legal posture for whatever inspection mechanism eventually returns, while declining to readmit the inspectors who would test it. Negotiating posture and operational reality stay on separate ledgers, leaving the mission free to advance the legal claim because no one in Vienna can currently verify or refute it. The ceiling argument also reframes any future Western demand for sub-20% enrichment as a political concession by Tehran rather than a treaty obligation, since under the mission's reading there is no treaty obligation to concede. The 18 sealed Isfahan containers are the unverifiable hinge between the legal claim and the physical facts.
