France, Germany and Britain warned Iran on Saturday, saying they had reached the “limit” of their “flexibility” as Tehran “continues to develop its nuclear program beyond any civilian justification”. A joint statement by spokespersons for the foreign ministers of the three European countries confirmed Iran’s “lack of cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as its “nuclear escalation” continues.
On Thursday, Iran made IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities conditional on the reactivation of the 2015 international agreement, known as the JCPOA for its acronym in English. “These latest demands raise serious doubts about Iran’s intentions and determination to achieve a favorable outcome,” the spokespersons said. The JCPOA, signed by Iran, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the United States, limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions that weighed heavily on Tehran’s economy. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact and for the past 16 months Iran has been negotiating with Western countries to re-establish the agreement, in a long series of discussions.
“Iran must cooperate fully and promptly in good faith with the IAEA,” reinforced the three European countries, who added that, “taking into account the Iranian refusal to conclude the proposed agreement, we will consult our international partners on how to respond to the continuation of the program.” nuclear power and lack of cooperation with the IAEA”.
Iranian production of enriched uranium approaches level needed for atomic bomb
On Wednesday, the IAEA reported that within three months, Iran had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to 60%, a purity close to the level needed to make atomic bombs. A private report, to which the reporter had access in Vienna, specifies that the amount of uranium enriched by Iran to different levels (2%, 5%, 20% and 60%) increased between May and August by 131.6 kilograms, to 3,940.9 kilos. These stockpiles include more than 300 kilograms of other forms of uranium, such as oxides and nuclear fuel slabs.
The JCPOA stipulates that Iran must have no more than 300 kilograms of enriched uranium in gaseous form, equivalent to about 200 kilograms in solid form. The country has not fulfilled its obligations under the agreement since 2019, and justifies the production of 60% enriched uranium as material dedicated to medical purposes, but the IAEA said it was not in a position to guarantee that Iran’s atomic program is exclusively peaceful.
Inspectors also stressed that Iran’s decision to shut down dozens of IAEA monitoring and verification cameras will undermine its ability to provide assurances about the peaceful nature of the country’s nuclear program. As a result, monitoring and verification activities are “seriously affected,” the agency said in the report. In view of the prolonged shutdown of the cameras, the IAEA also spoke of “considerable challenges” to confirm the consistency of the declared stockpile of centrifuges – the equipment used to enrich uranium – in the future. Inspectors said Iran is increasingly connecting modern uranium centrifuges, which are much faster and more efficient than those used so far.
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