Vienna — Iran has further increased its uranium reserves enriched to near weapons grade levelsaccording to a confidential report Monday by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the latest in Tehran's attempts to exert constant pressure on the international community.
Iran is seeking the lifting of economic sanctions imposed over the country's controversial nuclear program in exchange for curbs on the program. The program, like all matters of state in Iran, is under the direction of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that is unlikely to change in the wake of the the helicopter crash last week that killed Iran's president and foreign minister.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report also comes amid rising tensions in the wider Middle East ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Iran launched direct attacks on each other's territory for the first time last month.
The report, seen by several news agencies, said that as of May 11, Iran has 142.1 kilograms (313.2 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent, an increase of 20.6 kilograms (45.4 pounds) since the UN watchdog's last report in February. Uranium enriched to 60% purity is only a short technical step from 90% weapons grade levels.
According to the IAEA definition, about 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of 60% enriched uranium is the amount at which it is theoretically possible to create an atomic weapon, if the material is further enriched, up to 90%
Also on May 11, the report says Iran's overall stockpile of enriched uranium is 6,201.3 kilograms (1,3671.5 pounds), an increase of 675.8 kilograms (1,489 .8 pounds) from the previous IAEA report.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons levels to make “several” bombs nuclear if it chooses to do so. . He has acknowledged that the UN agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran's centrifuges have been removed for clandestine enrichment.
Iran's continued lack of transparency in its nuclear program
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have grown since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Since then, Iran has abandoned all the limits the deal placed on its program and rapidly accelerated enrichment.
Under the original nuclear deal, signed in 2015, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium to only 3.67 percent purity, maintain a stockpile of about 300 kilograms, and use only very basic IR-1 centrifuges—machines that they spin uranium gas at high speed to enrich it. purposes
The 2015 accord saw Tehran agree to limit uranium enrichment to the levels needed to generate nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. At the time, UN inspectors were tasked with monitoring the program.
Monday's report also said Tehran has not reconsidered September 2023 decision to ban IAEA inspectors of continuing to monitor its nuclear program, adding that he expects Iran “to do so in the context of ongoing consultations between the agency (IAEA) and Iran.”
According to the report, Grossi “deeply regrets” Iran's decision to ban the inspectors, and a reversal of that decision “remains essential to fully allow the agency to carry out its verification activities in They will effectively.”
The deaths of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian have caused a pause in IAEA talks with Tehran to improve cooperation, the report acknowledges.
Before the May 19 helicopter crash, Iran had agreed to hold technical negotiations with the IAEA on May 20, following a visit by Grossi earlier in the month. But these meetings were broken due to the accident. Iran sent a letter on May 21 saying its nuclear team wants to continue discussions in Tehran “at an appropriate date to be mutually agreed upon,” the report said.
Vahid Salemi / AP
The report also said Iran has yet to provide answers to the IAEA's years-long investigation into the origin and current location of man-made uranium particles found at two sites that Tehran has not declared as potential nuclear sites, Varamin and Turquzabad.
He said the IAEA's request must be resolved, or the agency “will not be able to confirm the accuracy and completeness of Iran's statements” under a safeguards agreement between Tehran and the nuclear control body.
The report also said there had been no progress so far in reinstalling more monitoring equipment, including cameras, removed in June 2022. Since then, the only data recorded is from the cameras in the IAEA installed in a centrifuge workshop in the city of Isfahan in May 2023. although Iran has not provided the IAEA with access to this data.
The IAEA said that on May 21, IAEA inspectors, after a delay in April, “successfully serviced the cameras in the Isfahan workshops and the data they had collected from of late December 2023 were placed under separate Agency seals and Iranian seals on the locations.”
