️❣️❣️❣️UN agency: Iran uranium
stockpile still violates atomic deal
In this photo released by the official website
of the office of the
Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a
meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. On Sunday, Rouhani called on
President-elect Joe Biden to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the U.S.
to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. (Iranian Presidency Office via
AP) (Associated Press)
By Kiyoko Metzler and David Rising | AP
November 11, 2020 at 5:55 p.m. GMT+1
VIENNA — Iran continues to increase its stockpile of low-enriched uranium far
beyond the limits set in a landmark nuclear deal with world powers and to
enrich it to a greater purity than permitted, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency
said Wednesday.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document
distributed to member countries and seen by The Associated Press that Iran as
of Nov. 2 had a stockpile of 2,442.9 kilograms (5,385.7 pounds) of low-enriched
uranium, up from 2,105.4 kilograms (4,641.6 pounds) reported on Aug. 25.
The nuclear deal signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France,
Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or
JCPOA, allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds).
The IAEA reported that Iran has also been continuing to enrich uranium to a
purity of up to 4.5%, higher than the 3.67% allowed under the deal.
ADIran has openly announced all violations of the nuclear deal in advance,
which have followed the decision by the U.S. to pull out unilaterally in 2018.
The deal promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for the curbs on its
nuclear program. Since the U.S. withdrawal and imposition of new sanctions,
Tehran has been putting pressure on the remaining parties with the violations
to come up with new ways to offset the economy-crippling actions by Washington.
At the same time, the Iranian government has continued to allow International
Atomic Energy Agency inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities, a key
reason the countries that remain parties to the JCPOA say it’s worth
preserving.
The goal of the agreement is to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon,
something the country insists it does not intend to do.
ADA widely cited analysis by the Washington-based Arms Control Association suggests
that Iran now has more than double the material it would need to make a nuclear
weapon. However, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told The Associated Press
in an interview last month that his agency does not share that assessment.
Before agreeing to the nuclear deal, Iran enriched its uranium up to 20%
purity, which is a short technical step away from the weapons-grade level of
90%. In 2013, Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was already more than 7,000
kilograms (7.72 tons) with higher enrichment, but it didn’t pursue a bomb.
In the quarterly report distributed to members on Wednesday, the IAEA said it
still has questions from the discovery last year of particles of uranium of
man-made origin at a site outside Tehran not declared by Iran.
ADThe United States and Israel had been pressing the IAEA for some time to look
into the Turquzabad facility, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
described to the U.N. in 2018 as a “secret atomic warehouse.”
In the current report, the IAEA said the “compositions of these isotopically
altered particles” found there were “similar to particles found in Iran in the
past, originating from imported centrifuge components.” It said it found Iran’s
response to questions last month “unsatisfactory.”
“Following an assessment of this new information, the agency informed Iran that
it continues to consider Iran’s response to be not technically credible,” the
IAEA wrote this week. “A full and prompt explanation from Iran...is needed.”
IAEA Executive Director Rafael Grossi told the U.N. General Assembly on
Wednesday that “evaluations regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear
material and activities for Iran continue.”
ADHe said in his first speech to the 193-member world body, which was virtual
because of the pandemic, that he welcomed the agreement he reached with Iranian
officials in Tehran in August “on implementation of some safeguards
implementation issues,” including access to two sites.
Inspections have taken place and samples from the sites are being analyzed, he
said.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, told the assembly that “Iran and
the agency have agreed to work in good faith to resolve these
safeguards-related questions.”
Ravanchi also said it is “of utmost importance” for the IAEA to consider available
information on the nuclear activities of Saudi Arabia, its regional rival.
“If Saudi Arabia is seeking a peaceful nuclear program, it should act in a very
transparent manner and allow the agency’s inspectors to verify its activities,”
he said.
ADHe said the IAEA also needs to take “an unbiased and professional approach”
toward Israel, which is not a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and
is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons.
___
Associated Press writer Kiyoko Metzler reported this story in Vienna and AP
writer David Rising reported from Berlin. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the
United Nations contributed to this report.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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