Iran accelerates its enriched uranium production rate to 60%, according to the IAEA
Tehran's cooperation is "less than satisfactory," the report also assured, specifying that the country failed to answer the agency's questions several times.
Iran nuclear plant
Iran accelerated the rate of production of its stockpile of enriched uranium to 60%, a level close to the 90% needed to produce nuclear weapons, says a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) consulted Saturday by AFP.
"This considerable increase in the production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear weapons state to produce such nuclear material, is a matter of grave concern," the U.N. nuclear agency wrote in the document.
Tehran's cooperation is "less than satisfactory," it also assured, specifying that the country failed several times to answer IAEA questions, which hindered its verification activities at three undeclared sites.
For this reason, the head of the nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, hopes to go to Iran soon to engage in a "constructive dialogue" with President Masud Pezeshkian, after noting that Tehran continues to expand its nuclear program.
IAEA denounces lack of cooperation
Grossi expresses in a report "the desire to visit Iran soon, in order to engage in a fluid and constructive dialogue leading to concrete results," after years of deteriorating relations between the IAEA and the Islamic Republic.
Despite the Argentine diplomat's claims regarding Iran's lack of transparency in increasing its enriched uranium reserves, Tehran denies any intention to equip itself with an atomic bomb.
Grossi visited Iran in early May in the wake of growing concerns about the Islamic Republic's nuclear intentions against a tense geopolitical backdrop. But the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accident put the talks on hold.
An atomic bomb
The agency estimates that Iran's total stockpile of enriched uranium, which according to the 2015 international nuclear agreement (known as JCPOA) should not exceed 660 pounds, totaled 12,680 pounds last Aug. 17, some 991 pounds less than in May.
The total amount of enriched uranium now exceeds 45 times the limit authorized by the 2015 nuclear deal, signed between Iran and major Western powers in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran.
"The continued production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear weapons state to do so, heightens the Agency's concern," the report presented this week said.
The 2015 agreement, which the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of in 2018 and which Iran began breaching a year later, set a limit of 660 pounds of enriched uranium with a maximum purity of 3.67%.
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