Tensions grow between Iran, IAEA over reported uranium enrichment

Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on Sunday that it was in discussions with Iran amid media reports accusing the Islamic republic of significantly stepping up uranium enrichment levels. 

Bloomberg News reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had last week detected uranium enriched to 84 percent purity, only 6 percent below the amount required for a weapon. The report cites two anonymous senior diplomats.

The last known level of Iran’s uranium enrichment is 60 percent purity. Tehran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear activities are for peaceful and civilian purposes only, insisting that it does not intend to build a nuclear bomb. 

“The IAEA is aware of recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran,” the nuclear watchdog tweeted. 

It added that the IAEA “is discussing with Iran the results of recent Agency verification activities”.

Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) denied the reports, telling Iranian state media that the existence of particles of uranium with over 60 percent purity “does not mean that there is enrichment higher than 60 percent.”

Iran ramped up its nuclear activities after former US president Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal and Washington increased sanctions on Tehran. 

Negotiations resumed in 2021 between world powers to return to the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but have stalled in recent months following disagreements. Protests also broke out across Iran in September following the death of a young woman in police custody, triggering renewed sanctions and harsh criticism towards the regime’s crackdown and execution of protesters.
The reports of uranium enrichment come at a time of increasing international isolation and condemnation of the regime in Tehran.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi in January warned that Iran had “amassed enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons.” 

The JCPOA was signed between Britain, France, China, Germany, Russia, Iran, and the US in 2015, offering Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to ensure it does not enrich enough uranium to develop a nuclear weapon.

In December, Iran boasted of having enriched uranium to unprecedented levels.