US offers $20m reward for intelligence on Iran's nuclear programme

The US State Department has announced a reward of up to $20 million for actionable intelligence on Iran's nuclear programme, with permanent resettlement offered to informants who come forward.

Administered through the Rewards for Justice programme, the bounty covers disclosures on Iranian nuclear sites, specialised enrichment machinery and personnel — specifically researchers and figures within the Iranian scientific establishment.

The State Department said that "Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state that is producing uranium enriched to such high levels." Experts assess that this quantity, if further enriched, could be sufficient to manufacture several nuclear weapons, it added.

Iran has accelerated enrichment to 60 percent purity at heavily fortified facilities, according to International Atomic Energy Agency evaluations cited by the State Department. The 60 percent threshold sits a short technical step from the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade concentration required for a functional nuclear warhead.

The IAEA has lost what US authorities describe as "continuity of knowledge" over Iran's centrifuge production and stockpiles after Iranian authorities disconnected surveillance cameras, revoked the accreditation of senior UN inspectors and denied access to centrifuge component workshops.

The Rewards for Justice initiative aims to bypass official concealment by incentivising defectors, technicians and whistleblowers to deliver documentation, technical blueprints and operational personnel lists to US intelligence agencies.

The announcement intersects with broader security concerns. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously disclosed that Kyiv identified evidence of Russian defence transfers to Tehran, including space-based satellite reconnaissance feeds and drone components, pointing to an expanding military-technical axis between Moscow and Tehran.