Iran seems to be pushing ahead with its uranium enrichments.
(Photo: dpa)
According to a report, Iran is continuing to advance its uranium enrichments. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows that Iran is not meeting its nuclear commitments, the United States, Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency criticized Iran on Wednesday for making an unreported modification to machinery. This means that uranium can be enriched in the underground fuel enrichment plant in Fordow to a degree of purity of up to 60 percent and thus almost to weapons quality. “As the agency noted, this unannounced change is inconsistent with Iran’s commitments under the Comprehensive Safeguards Treaty mandated by the NPT,” the four countries said in their statement. The IAEA discovered the change during an unannounced inspection on January 21 in Fordow.
Iran stated that the IAEA’s position on Tehran’s nuclear work was incorrect. “The IAEA inspector’s interpretation was wrong, but he reported it to the agency… We provided a statement to the IAEA the same day,” Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Thursday.
The nuclear deal originally agreed in 2015 is intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The government in Tehran denies having any such plans. The United States had terminated the agreement in 2018 under its then President Donald Trump and again imposed sanctions on Iran. As a result, Iran no longer complied with all of the conditions. Last year, talks on a new deal involving the United States, France, Britain, Germany, as well as Russia, China and Iran appeared to be on the right track. But then Russia brought up new demands. Observers had linked this to Western sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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