Iran on Monday denied reports released the day before that it had detected 84% enriched uranium, just below the 90% needed to produce an atomic bomb, which sparked international concern.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday evening that it was in discussions with Iran after the publication of a dispatch from the Bloomberg news agency indicating, on the basis of two diplomatic sources, that inspectors of the IAEA had detected levels of enrichment at 84%.
A diplomat confirmed to AFP that “this percentage” was “correct” and that the IAEA was now giving Iran “the opportunity to explain itself because it is apparently possible that there could be peaks of higher enrichment levels”.
According to Bloomberg, inspectors “need to determine whether Iran produced this material intentionally” or not.
The concentration could result from “an involuntary accumulation” due to technical difficulties in the cascades of centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium.
In a tweet published on Sunday evening, the IAEA said it would “inform the Board of Governors” of the UN agency “when the time comes”.
“It goes without saying that if this press information were confirmed, proven, it would constitute a new and extremely worrying element,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told reporters in Brussels, hoping from the IAEA “ more specific information”.
France participates with Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia in the 2015 nuclear agreement from which the United States withdrew.
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell claimed to have asked during a telephone conversation Sunday evening with the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that Iran “fulfils its obligations” vis-à-vis the IAEA after the “disturbing news” reached on the enrichment of uranium.
For his part, the spokesman of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanani, regretted the publication of such information. He called on the IAEA to “adopt a professional attitude regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities”.
This information is a “distortion of the facts (…) So far, we have not made any attempt to enrich beyond 60%”, reacted Monday the spokesman of the Organization of Iranian nuclear energy, Behrouz Kamalvandi, quoted by the official IRNA agency.
He clarified that “the presence of particles beyond 60% does not mean that there is an enrichment (of uranium) to more than 60%”.
In January, the director-general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, was worried about “the trajectory” taken by the Iranian nuclear program.
“They have amassed enough nuclear material to make several nuclear weapons,” although further steps are needed, he warned.
The new information on the Iranian nuclear dossier comes as negotiations to revive the agreement reached in 2015 to limit Iran’s atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions have stalled.
They had started in April 2021 in Vienna between Tehran and the great powers, but they have been blocked since August 2022 in a context of growing tensions.
The agreement, known by the acronym JCPOA, has been moribund since the withdrawal of the United States in 2018 by President Donald Trump.
In the process, the Islamic Republic gradually freed itself from its commitments.
It now officially produces 60% enriched uranium at two sites (Natanz and Fordo), a threshold well above that of 3.67% set by the pact.
According to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a next visit by Mr. Grossi to Tehran is still planned. “If the agency acts with a technical and non-political objective, it will be possible to agree on a framework to resolve” the nuclear dispute, said the Iranian minister.
02/20/2023 13:25:11 – Vienna (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
