diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/619-inventory-aws_ec2-assume-arn-role-when-listing-regions.yml b/changelogs/fragments/619-inventory-aws_ec2-assume-arn-role-when-listing-regions.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..67451a5ae33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/619-inventory-aws_ec2-assume-arn-role-when-listing-regions.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+minor_changes:
+- >-
+  aws_ec2 inventory - use the iam_role_arn configuration parameter to assume the role before trying to call DescribeRegions
+  if the regions configuration is not set and AWS credentials provided without enough privilege to perform the DescribeRegions action.
+  (https://github.com/ansible-collections/amazon.aws/issues/566)
diff --git a/plugins/inventory/aws_ec2.py b/plugins/inventory/aws_ec2.py
index 3806a0a2c9f..194dcf05295 100644
--- a/plugins/inventory/aws_ec2.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/aws_ec2.py
@@ -227,6 +227,7 @@
 from ansible_collections.amazon.aws.plugins.module_utils.ec2 import ansible_dict_to_boto3_filter_list
 from ansible_collections.amazon.aws.plugins.module_utils.ec2 import boto3_tag_list_to_ansible_dict
 from ansible_collections.amazon.aws.plugins.module_utils.ec2 import camel_dict_to_snake_dict
+from ansible_collections.amazon.aws.plugins.module_utils.core import is_boto3_error_code
 
 
 # The mappings give an array of keys to get from the filter name to the value
@@ -408,7 +409,7 @@ def _get_connection(self, credentials, region='us-east-1'):
                 raise AnsibleError("Insufficient credentials found: %s" % to_native(e))
         return connection
 
-    def _boto3_assume_role(self, credentials, region):
+    def _boto3_assume_role(self, credentials, region=None):
         """
         Assume an IAM role passed by iam_role_arn parameter
 
@@ -447,6 +448,17 @@ def _boto3_conn(self, regions):
             except botocore.exceptions.NoRegionError:
                 # above seems to fail depending on boto3 version, ignore and lets try something else
                 pass
+            except is_boto3_error_code('UnauthorizedOperation'):  # pylint: disable=duplicate-except
+                if iam_role_arn is not None:
+                    try:
+                        # Describe regions assuming arn role
+                        assumed_credentials = self._boto3_assume_role(credentials)
+                        client = self._get_connection(assumed_credentials)
+                        resp = client.describe_regions()
+                        regions = [x['RegionName'] for x in resp.get('Regions', [])]
+                    except botocore.exceptions.NoRegionError:
+                        # above seems to fail depending on boto3 version, ignore and lets try something else
+                        pass
 
         # fallback to local list hardcoded in boto3 if still no regions
         if not regions: