Trump warns Iran as US weighs fresh strike on nuclear site

The United States, Britain, France and Germany have drafted a resolution for possible consideration by the Board of Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog that seeks to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failure to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, diplomats say.

Under those obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow inspectors of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses.

The diplomatic move has been under consideration since June 2025 when the IAEA board found Iran officially in noncompliance with its nonproliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years - one day before the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran's nuclear sites.

The possible referral of Iran to the UN Security Council shifts the responsibility to a higher authority that is able to enact further legally binding measures, including sanctions or asset freezes.

But specific punitive measures by the UN are unlikely in this case since Iran's allies Russia and China hold a veto power on the UN Security Council.

The draft resolution, which was seen by The Associated Press and reported earlier by Reuters, requests the IAEA director general Rafael Grossi "to transmit this resolution and the previously adopted resolutions … to all Members of the Agency and to the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the IAEA Statute."

The resolution also "stresses its support for a diplomatic solution to the challenges posed by the Iranian nuclear programme and its implications for regional peace and stability leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran's nuclear activities, and encourages all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy."

Diplomats say that the resolution is still under negotiation and has not yet been formally submitted to the board. The text of the draft resolution may therefore still change, as board members still have the opportunity to suggest amendments.

Once formally submitted, it will be put to a vote during next week's IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna.

The United States on Friday announced the approval of a $5 billion sale of bombs, guidance kits and other equipment to Saudi Arabia, which has been repeatedly attacked during the US-Israeli war against Iran.

"The proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia's airborne defence capability to counter current and future regional threats, strengthen its homeland defence, and improve interoperability with systems operated by US forces and other Gulf region partners," the US State Department said in a statement.

The sale will also "support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a Major non-NATO Ally," the department said.

Saudi Arabia has been targeted with drone and missile strikes by Iranian forces and Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthi rebels since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran earlier this year.

The State Department has notified Congress of the proposed sale of the bombs to Riyadh, which still needs to be approved by US lawmakers.

President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) said the United States could ‘hit’ Iran's heavily fortified underground nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain ‘very soon’, days after Washington targeted Iranian military targets.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against the Islamic Republic, saying its primary objective was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"We're in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They're not going to have a nuclear weapon; that's what we did," Trump said.

"Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn't be standing here very long," he added.

Trump then warned that Pickaxe Mountain could be targeted if the US detects activity there.

"We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe," Trump said, adding that US intelligence was closely monitoring activity at the site.

"We know everybody that's moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that's moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard," Trump said.

Trump also argued that US military intervention had prevented a wider regional conflict, saying that without American action, Israel and the broader Middle East would have faced a potentially more serious threat.

"If we didn't go in there, you wouldn't have Israel right now, you wouldn't have the Middle East, and they probably would go at European cities and our cities next," Trump said.

"But we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon in five months," he added.

Trump also spoke about the recent US strikes on Iranian radar systems, claiming American forces had destroyed sophisticated radar installations on two occasions.

"There had been no shooting for days before the hit that we gave them the other night to wipe out the radar they had," Trump said.

"They had very sophisticated radar – they brought in radar because we knocked it out once, and now we knocked it out twice. Now we don't notice any activity," he added.

Trump suggested Iran had become reluctant to continue deploying radar systems because of repeated US attacks.

"I think they're tired of putting it in and getting blown up," he said.

President Donald Trump said Friday that the Iran war was "small potatoes" for the United States, in his administration's latest bid to play down the conflict ahead of crucial midterm elections.

Trump's comments came a day after Vice President JD Vance said that "I wouldn't call it a war" despite an upsurge in clashes between Iran and the United States over the Strait of Hormuz.

"A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about Vance's remarks.

"It's not a big thing. We did Venezuela, and we did this," added Trump, who was surrounded by cattle ranchers invited for the signing of two executive orders on beef processing.

The six-month-old war in which 18 US troops and thousands of Iranians have died has reached a stalemate, with Tehran disrupting shipping traffic in the strategic waterway.

But with fuel prices threatening to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress in November's midterms, his administration has been trying to minimize the conflict.

Trump said the US was carrying out "intermittent strikes" but that "we're not fighting right now."

He reiterated his claims that the United States effectively controlled the Strait of Hormuz and had decimated Iran's military.

"What we've done is amazing. We took over Venezuela and we have essentially taken over Iran," Trump said.

Pressed on calling the war "small potatoes" when 18 service members died, an increasingly irate Trump compared the Iran war to the years-long US wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

"I don't think it matters what you call it. What matters is the fact we have had tremendous success. We've stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon," he said.

Day 184: US insists Iran conflict is not a war while economic blockade tightens

Day 183: Trump boasts ‘unlimited’ US ammo, warns of more strikes

Day 182: US strikes on Iran would not continue 'too long': Trump

Day 180: Trump warns of more strikes on Tehran

Day 179: UAE strongly condemns missile attacks on Jordan