IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi takes staff questions at the agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria, last week. Photo: Dean Calma / IAEA
France, Germany and the United Kingdom have condemned Iran’s efforts to ramp up its uranium enrichment program.
“We (France, Germany and the United Kingdom) condemn Iran’s latest steps, as reported by the IAEA, to expand its nuclear program to significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60% at the underground Fordow facility,” a statement from the UK Foreign Office said.
The statement was made after reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned that Iran is accelerating its efforts to develop weapons-grade uranium.
“We are also extremely concerned to learn that Iran has increased the number of centrifuges in use and started preparations to install additional enrichment infrastructure, further increasing Iran’s enrichment capacity,” the UK Foreign Office statement said.
It pointed out that the three countries (also known as E3) met with Iranian officials last week to discuss their nuclear program and sanctions.
“Iran’s actions further hollowed out the JCPOA (a 2015 deal to limit Iranian nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief) will increase Iran’s high enriched uranium stockpile which already has no credible civilian justification …” the UK Foreign Office said.
“We strongly urge Iran to reverse these steps, and to immediately halt its nuclear escalation.”
IAEA ASSESSMENT
Reuters reported that the IAEA believes Iran is accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60 per cent purity; roughly a 90 per cent level is needed for weapons-grade material, agency director-general Rafael Grossi says.
In a confidential report seen by Reuters, he says Iran is speeding up uranium enrichment, which refines raw uranium so it can be used as fuel in civil nuclear power generation or, potentially, nuclear weapons.
Tehran already has enough enriched uranium to be able to make four nuclear weapons, the IAEA says.
Grossi says Iran’s production capacity was set to rise to “seven, eight times more, maybe, or even more” than the current level.
European and Iranian officials made little progress on whether they could enter serious talks on the nuclear program before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
Some observers believe the Iranian acceleration at Fordow derailing prospects for talks with US.
After he pulled the US out of the 2015 deal, Trump sought to wreck Iran’s economy. He is staffing his planned new administration with hawks on Iran.
The E3 have said they want revive talks before the deal expires in October 2025. Since Trump left the deal, Iran abandoned the restrictions on its nuclear program.
