 | November 20, 2025 This month’s newsletter features resources for understanding the state of play of Iran’s nuclear program following this year’s military strikes and U.N. sanctions snapback, as well as news about an Iranian nuclear delegation visiting a Russian weapons institute, Chinese companies supplying Iran with materials to rebuild its missile arsenal, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s seizure of an oil tanker. Also featured are an updated profile of Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), the primary entity carrying out Iran’s nuclear weapons-related research, and the company and CEO who organized technical visits of SPND researchers to Russia. Additions to the Iran Watch library include reports and statements from the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting, new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran and its proxies, and official reactions to Iran’s seizure of a vessel on the high seas. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox, or view the newsletter in your browser. |
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| IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi briefs the press about Iran at the November 2025 Board of Governors meeting. (Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA) |
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| This article analyzes the U.S. strike against Fordow and other targets in June 2025. It identifies key uncertainties following the strikes and the risks associated with those uncertainties. |
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| This table provides the purpose, location, and status of Iran’s nuclear facilities following the U.S. and Israeli strikes in June. It includes both declared facilities relating to Iran’s full nuclear fuel cycle and undeclared facilities suspected of being connected to its nuclear weaponization effort. |
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| This report considers various scenarios to establish theoretical estimates for how long it might take Iran to use secret uranium enrichment sites to manufacture fuel for a small nuclear arsenal in the aftermath of the Israeli and U.S. strikes on its declared facilities. |
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| Valerie Lincy and John Caves sit down with John Lauder, a Wisconsin Project Senior Fellow with more than three decades of experience in the U.S. intelligence community, to think through the new realities after the bombing of Iran’s nuclear program and the return of U.N. sanctions. |
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| This timeline traces milestones in Iran’s nuclear progress from the program’s origins in the 1960s to the revelations of its military dimensions in the early 2000s, sanctions and diplomacy in the 2010s, and the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2025. |
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| Recent reporting and sanctions announcements have revealed that Iran in 2024 sought technology from Russia that can be used in nuclear weapons testing and design. These procurement efforts were led by a military research institute and a front company acting on its behalf. |
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| Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tehran in February 2025. (Photo Credit: Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) |
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| November 18, 2025: Iranian nuclear experts linked to the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) visited a Russian company specializing in laser technology in November 2024, according to documents obtained by FT. The delegation was organized and led by Ali Kalvand, the director of SPND-linked procurement broker DamavandTec. It included four Iranians who purported to be DamavandTec employees but were actually researchers affiliated with universities linked to Iran's defense establishment, including Shahid Beheshti University, Islamic Azad University, and Malek Ashtar University of Technology. The delegation visited the St. Petersburg-based company Laser Systems, which is licensed to develop weapons for Russia's defense ministry. A Laser Systems researcher subsequently visited Tehran to meet DamavandTec representatives in February 2025. Ali Kalvand had also led another delegation of Iranian nuclear experts to Russia earlier in 2024. |
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| November 15, 2025: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had seized a tanker "for carrying unauthorized cargo". The vessel, the Talara, was a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker transporting gasoil from Singapore to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Talara's Cyprus-based ship management company said it lost contact with the vessel on November 14 approximately 20 nautical miles off the coast of Khor Fakkan in the UAE. |
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| October 31, 2025: Between ten and twelve shipments together containing 2,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, an ingredient for solid missile propellant, have arrived in Iran's Bandar Abbas port from China since the reimposition of U.N. sanctions on Iran at the end of September, according to European intelligence sources. Some cargo ships made multiple trips between Iran and China and appear to be crewed by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), including the MV Artavand, Barzin, Basht, and Elyana. 2,000 tons of sodium chlorate is sufficient for fueling approximately 500 missiles, according to experts. Iran previously received shipments of sodium perchlorate from China earlier in 2025, including 1,000 tons in February and another 1,000 tons in June. A large explosion in Bandar Abbas in April was believed to have been caused by sodium perchlorate stored there. |
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| The IAEA’s Board of Governors met this month to discuss the status of Iran’s nuclear program and the future of inspections following the June military strikes. - The Agency’s NPT safeguards report noted that the IAEA has not been allowed by Iran to inspect sites affected by the June strikes and has lost continuity of knowledge as to the nuclear material stored there – November 12
- IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s statement emphasized the importance of the Agency being granted access to Iranian sites that were damaged in the strikes – November 19
- France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint statement about a draft resolution to align the IAEA’s reporting with the Security Council resolutions restored by snapback – November 19
- The United States and the E3 also released separate statements urging support for the draft resolution and calling on Iran to fulfill its safeguards obligations – November 20
- The IAEA board approved the resolution instructing the Agency to report on the implementation of Security Council resolutions restored by snapback and urging Iran to comply with their provisions – November 20
The United States continued its maximum pressure sanctions campaign against Iran. - The Treasury Department froze the assets of Lebanese financiers who channeled money from Iran to Hezbollah – November 6
- The Treasury Department sanctioned facilitators of Iranian imports of missile propellant ingredients from China, as well as entities involved in the IRGC’s procurement of drone parts and related money laundering – November 12
- The Treasury and State Departments also sanctioned dozens of entities, vessels, and aircraft involved in smuggling Iranian oil and arms – November 20
The U.S. military’s Central Command denounced Iran’s seizure of the MV Talara as illegal and said that it had monitored the incident. |
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| Iran Watch is a website published by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. The Wisconsin Project is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts research, advocacy, and public education aimed at inhibiting strategic trade from contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Copyright © 2025 - Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control |
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