Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, a confidential report on Monday by the UN’s nuclear watchdog said, the latest in Tehran’s attempts to steadily exert pressure on the international community.
Iran is seeking to have economic sanctions imposed over the nation’s controversial nuclear program lifted in exchange for slowing the program down. The program is under the guidance of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that likely would not change in the wake of last week’s helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president and foreign minister.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that as of May 11, Iran had 142.1kg of uranium enriched up to 60 percent — an increase of 20.6kg since the last report by the UN agency in February.
Photo:AP
Uranium enriched at 60 percent purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
By the IAEA’s definition, about 42kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90 percent.
Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium stood at 6,201.3kg, an increase of 675.8kg since the IAEA’s previous report.
Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi has previously warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to do so.
He has acknowledged the UN agency cannot guarantee that none of Iran’s centrifuges might have been peeled away for clandestine enrichment.
Tensions have grown between Iran and the IAEA since 2018, when then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Since then, Iran has abandoned all limits the deal put on its program and quickly stepped up enrichment.
Under the original nuclear deal, struck in 2015, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67 percent purity, maintain a stockpile of about 300kg and use only very basic IR-1 centrifuges — machines that spin uranium gas at high speed for enrichment purposes.
Monday’s report also said that Tehran has not reconsidered its decision in September last year to bar IAEA inspectors from further monitoring its nuclear program, adding that it expects Iran “to do so in the context of the ongoing consultations between the agency and Iran.”
In the report, Grossi said he “deeply regrets” Iran’s decision to bar inspectors, and a reversal of that decision “remains essential to fully allow the agency to conduct its verification activities in Iran effectively.”
The deaths of then-Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and then-minister of foreign affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian have triggered a pause in the IAEA’s talks with Tehran over improving cooperation, the report said.
Before the May 19 helicopter crash, Iran had agreed to hold technical negotiations with IAEA on May 20, following a visit by Grossi earlier in the month, but those meetings fell apart due to the crash.
Iran then sent a letter on Tuesday last week, saying its nuclear team wants to continue discussions in Tehran “on an appropriate date that will be mutually agreed upon,” the report said.
The report added that Iran has still not provided answers to the IAEA’s years-long investigation about the origin and current location of manmade uranium particles found at two locations — Varamin and Turquzabad — that Tehran has failed to declare as potential nuclear sites.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS