UNSC resolution to delay action to flop; Iran warns deal with IAEA would be “terminated” if sanctions are reinstated.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that Tehran would scrap an agreement to let the U.N. watchdog inspect its nuclear sites if Western powers reinstated U.N. sanctions.

Iran’s parliament will on Sunday debate a letter by its members calling for a change in the country’s stated policy of not pursuing nuclear weapons, raising the stakes in the diplomatic showdown over Tehran’s atomic work ahead of a key UN vote.

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday branded the U.S. saying it wanted a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear programme as a "deception". U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday Washington was talking to Iran and that the U.

Satellite imagery indicates Iran is increasing construction at a deeply buried site in “Pickaxe Mountain,” just south of the Natanz nuclear facility hit by Israeli and U.S. strikes in June.

Iran insists diplomacy is the only way to resolve a decades-long nuclear dispute with the West, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV on Monday, adding it was time for the West to choose "cooperation or confrontation" amid looming sanctions.

Addressing the world's leaders, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday blamed the United States and Israeli attacks for "dealing a grievous blow" to peace negotiations as Tehran braces for the reinstatement of sanctions next week,

European leaders warned Iran it has only hours left to meet nuclear transparency demands and avert the reimposition of UN sanctions, though talks continue at the UN General Assembly.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that negotiations with the United States would not serve Tehran's interests and would prove a "dead-end".

Iran has signed a $25 billion agreement with Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom to build four nuclear power plants in Iran, IRNA news agency said on Friday. Rosatom said on Wednesday it signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, without giving a number.

A giant banner featuring symbolic images of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, Iranian nuclear scientists killed in Israeli attacks during the 12-day war, and a Persian script that reads, ''Science is power,'' hangs from a government building in downtown Tehran, Iran, Aug. 28, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)