In light of ongoing concerns with the international nuclear watchdog and disagreements over its 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran has refuted claims that it purposely refined uranium to a purity of 84 percent.
According to US-based financial news outlet Bloomberg, IAEA inspectors have discovered uranium that is enriched to a purity of 84 percent, which is just shy of the 90 percent needed for a bomb. They are now attempting to determine whether the uranium was produced on purpose.
This is the purest uranium ever discovered in Iran, which has declared enrichment up to 60% since 2019, one year after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from its nuclear agreement with other world powers. Iranian government representatives have stated that they do not desire a nuclear weapon.
Early on Monday, the IAEA posted on Twitter, “The IAEA is aware of recent media allegations referring to uranium enrichment levels in Iran.” “Director General @rafaelmgrossi is talking to Iran about the outcomes of recent Agency verification efforts and will update the IAEA Board of Governors as necessary,” reads a tweet from the director general.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesperson for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, told the state-run Fars news website late on Sunday that inspectors had discovered particles with a purity higher than 60%, but that this had happened before and was nothing unusual.
“The presence of a uranium particle or particles in the enrichment process with a purity of above 60% does not imply that enrichment over 60% has occurred,” he stated.
This is very natural and may even happen if the input to the centrifuge cascades is temporarily reduced. The ultimate product is what counts, and the Islamic Republic of Iran hasn’t tried to enrich its oil over 60% yet.
The fact that this matter was leaked to Western media, in Kamalvandi’s opinion, demonstrated an attempt to “smear and bend facts,” as the agency would not have have reported it to its member states.
The official also echoed Iranian claims that the agency was being used as a “political tool” to exert pressure on Iran by leaking private information to media outlets in Western nations.
The IAEA and Iran recently battled earlier this month when a leaked confidential agency assessment claimed that an unannounced adjustment had been made to the connectivity between two cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the important underground installation at Fordow.
Iran rejected the assessment as “incorrect,” beginning its 60 percent Fordow uranium enrichment program un November of last year in response to an IAEA board censure resolution.
The Western parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the nuclear agreement, have repeatedly urged Iran to fully comply with the agency and restore its full monitoring access.
Both the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and the head of foreign policy for the European Union, Josep Borrell, acknowledged the conversation in Twitter.
Since September, when Iran was allegedly blamed by the Western parties for sabotaging the negotiations, there has been no movement in efforts to save the nuclear agreement.
Since then, they have enacted a number of rounds of sanctions against Iranian individuals and organizations for their suspected sales of drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine War and their repression of anti-government demonstrations.
For its part, Tehran has remained steadfast in its desire for a deal and has criticized the West for lacking political will.
China and Russia are moreover a part of the JCPOA.
