Iran has increased its enriched uranium arsenal to nearby levels of degree of weapons, said a confidential report of the UN Nuclear Control Agency on Saturday and asked Tehran to urgently change the course and comply with the agency’s investigation.
The report arrives at a sensitive moment, since Tehran and Washington have been celebrating several rounds of conversations in recent weeks on a possible nuclear agreement that US President Donald Trump is trying to reach.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna, which was seen by Associated Press, says that as of May 17, Iran has accumulated 900.8 pounds of enriched uranium up to 60%.
That is an increase of 294.9 pounds, or almost 50%, since the last OIEA report in February. The material enriched with 60% is at a short and technical step of the 90% weapons degree. A report in February put this reserve level at 605.8 pounds.
There were no immediate comments from Tehran in the new Oiea report.
The OIEA report raised a severe warning, saying that they will now be “the only state of non -nuclear weapons to produce such material”, something that the agency said it was “serious concern.”
Approximately 92 pounds of 60% enriched uranium is theoretically sufficiently enough to produce an atomic bomb, if 90.2% are enriched, according to the guard dog.
What does the report say?
The Oiea report, a quarterly, also estimated that as of May 17, the General Reserve of Uranium of Iran, which includes enriched uranium at lower levels, stood at 20,387.4. That is an increase of 2,101.4 pounds from the February report.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the head of the OIEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched at levels of degree close to weapons to make “several” nuclear bombs if you choose to do it.
Iranian officials have suggested more and more that Tehran could pursue an atomic bomb.
The intelligence agencies of the United States evaluate that Iran has not yet started a weapons program, but has “carried out activities that position it better to produce a nuclear device, if you fail to do it.”
Israel’s rapid reaction
Israel said Saturday’s report was a clear warning sign that “Iran is totally determined to complete its nuclear weapons program,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
He said that the OIEA report “strongly reinforces what Israel has been saying for years: the purpose of Iran’s nuclear program is not peaceful.”
He also added that Iran’s level of enrichment “has no civil justification” and appealed to the international community to “act now to stop Iran.”
Call cooperation
Grossi said on Saturday that “he reiterates his urgent call to Iran to cooperate completely and effectively” with the investigation of Uranium years discovered in several Iran sites.
The OIEA also distributed to the Member States on Saturday a second 22 -page confidential report, also seen by the AP, which Grossi requested after a resolution approved by the Board of Governors of 35 members of the IEA last November.
In this so -called “Integral Report”, the OIEA said that Iran’s cooperation with the agency has been “less than satisfactory” when it comes to uranium traces discovered by the IEA inspectors in several places in Iran that Tehran has not been able to declare as nuclear sites.
Western officials suspect that Uranium traces discovered by the OIEA could provide evidence that Iran had a secret military program until 2003.
One of the sites was known publicly in 2018 after Netanyahu revealed it on the United Nations and called him a clandestine nuclear warehouse hidden in a carpet cleaning plant.
Iran denied this, but in 2019 the IEA inspectors detected the presence of artificial uranium particles there.
What is inspection of the OIEA in Iran?
After initially blocking access to the OIEA, the inspectors were able to collect samples in 2020 from two other places where they also detected the presence of artificial uranium particles.
The three locations were known as Turquzabad, Varamin and Marivan.
A fourth unpleasant location called Lavisan-Shian is also part of Oiea’s investigation, but Oiea inspectors never visited the site because it was razed and demolished by Iran after 2003.
In Saturday’s integral report, the IAEA says that the “lack of answers and clarifications provided by Iran” to question the guard dog that had regarding Lavisan-Shian, Varamin and Marivan “has led the agency to conclude that these three locations and other possible related locations, were part of a structured nuclear program not declared by IR will until the beginning of the decade of 2000 and that some activities used nuclear materials. “
What follows?
Saturday’s integral report could be a basis for possible additional steps of European nations, which leads to a possible climbing in tensions between Iran and the West.
European countries could move to trigger backward penalties against Iran that rose under the original 2015 nuclear agreement before October, when the agreement formally expires.
On Thursday, the high Iranian officials dismissed speculation about an imminent nuclear agreement with the United States, emphasizing that any agreement must completely raise the sanctions and allow the country’s nuclear program to continue.
The comments occurred one day after Trump said he told Netanyahu to stop Iran to give the US administration more time to boost a new agreement with Tehran.
Trump said Friday that he still believes that an agreement could be completed in the “not too distant future.”
“They don’t want to be exploited. They prefer to make a deal,” Trump said about Iran. He added: “That would be a great thing that we could have a deal without the bombs being falling throughout the Middle East.”
