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Iran has further increased its stock of uranium enriched at weapon quality levels, a confidential report of nuclear surveillance of the United Nations said on Saturday.
In a separate report, the agency called Tehran to change emergency and to comply with its probe for several years.
The news arrives at a sensitive moment, because Tehran and Washington have organized several series of talks in recent weeks for a possible nuclear agreement that US President Donald Trump is trying to reach.
The report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna – which was seen by the Associated Press – indicates that on May 17, Iran amassed 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60%.
This represents an increase of 133.8 kilograms – or almost 50% – since the last AIAA report in February. The 60% enriched material is at a short technical step in the levels of quality of arms of 90%. A report in February put this level of stock at 274.8 kilograms.
The Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iran’s atomic energy organization said in a joint declaration that the IAEA report was based on “unreliable and different sources of information” and accused it of being biased, non -professional and lacking in crucial and updated information.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its disappointment about the report, which was prepared by imposing pressure on the agency for political ends, and expresses its obvious objection about its content,” the statement said.
The declaration reiterated that the supreme chief of the country, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all questions of the State, published a religious decree that nuclear weapons would not be part of the country’s defense arsenal. However, Iran stressed that by virtue of international law, the country is entitled to a peaceful nuclear program, including uranium enrichment. The press release indicates that the enrichment of uranium was under “transparent” surveillance by IAEA, which the agency denies.
The press release also accused the IAEA of looking at the 2018 withdrawal of the nuclear agreement by the United States.
What does the report say?
The AIEA report has raised a severe warning, saying that Iran is now “the only non -nuclear state to produce such material” – something that the agency said was “serious concern”.
According to the guard dog, about 42 kilograms of uranium enriched 60% enriched is sufficiently enriched, if it is 90% enriched, according to the watchdog.
The AIAA report, a quarterly, also estimated that on May 17, the global stock of uranium enriched with Iran – which includes uranium enriched at lower levels – amounted to 9,247.6 kilograms. It is an increase of 953.2 kilograms since the February report.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, but the head of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, warned that Tehran had enough uranium enriched at almost quality levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it did.
Iranian officials have increasingly suggested that Tehran could continue an atomic bomb.
The American intelligence agencies assess that Iran has not yet started a program of arms, but “undertook activities which position it better to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses it”.
Israel’s rapid reaction
Israel said on Saturday’s report was a clear warning sign that “Iran is completely determined to complete its nuclear weapon program,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
He said IAEA’s report “strongly strengthens what Israel has been saying for years – the purpose of the Iranian nuclear program is not peaceful”.
He also added the enrichment level of Iran “has no civil justification” and called on the international community to “act now to stop Iran”.
It is rare that Netanyahu made declarations on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest, which underlies the urgency with which he sees the question.
Call for cooperation
Grossi said on Saturday that he “reiterates his urgent call for Iran to cooperate fully and effectively” with the IEA survey in the traces of Uranium discovered on several sites in Iran.
The IAEA also distributed districts to the Member States on Saturday a second 22 -page confidential report, also seen by the AP, which Grosi asked for a resolution adopted by the Council of Governors of the IAEA of 35 members last November.
In this “full report”, the IAEA said that Iranian cooperation with the agency was far from satisfactory “with regard to the traces of uranium discovered by IAEA inspectors in several places in Iran that Tehran has not declared as nuclear sites.
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Western officials suspect that the traces of uranium discovered by the IAEA could provide evidence that Iran had a secret military nuclear program until 2003.
One of the sites became publicly known in 2018 after Netanyahu revealed it to the United Nations and called it a hidden illegal nuclear warehouse in a carpet cleaning plant.
Iran denied this, but in 2019, IEA inspectors detected the presence of uranium particles of human origin.
What is the IAEA inspection in Iran?
After initially blocked access to the IAEA, the inspectors were able to collect samples in 2020 from two other places where they also detected the presence of uranium particles of human origin.
The three locations have become known as Turquzabad, Varamin and Marivan.
A fourth unoblainted location named Lavisan-Shian is also part of the IAEA probe, but the IAEA inspectors never visited the site because it was shaved and demolished by Iran after 2003.
In the full report on Saturday, the IAEA says that the “lack of responses and clarifications provided by Iran” to question that the guard dog had concerning the Lavisan-Shian, the Varamin and the Marivan “led the agency to conclude that these three locations and other possible related locations were part of a structured undeclared nuclear program.”
What is the next step?
The Saturday report could be a basis for other additional stages of the European nations, leading to a potential climbing of tensions between Iran and the West.
European countries could move on to the outbreak of snap-back sanctions against Iran which were lifted under the original nuclear agreement of 2015 before October, when the agreement officially expires.
On Thursday, senior Iranian officials rejected speculations on an imminent nuclear agreement with the United States, stressing that any agreement is entirely sanctions and allowed the country’s nuclear program to continue.
The comments came one day after Trump said he said that he had to hang on to Iran giving the American administration for more time to put pressure for a new agreement with Tehran.
Trump said on Friday that he still thought that an agreement could be concluded in “a not too distant future”.
“They don’t want to be exploded. They prefer to conclude an agreement,” said Trump about Iran. He added: “It would be a great thing that we could have an agreement without the bombs being abandoned throughout the Middle East.”
