France, Germany and the United Kingdom warned Iran on Saturday, saying they had reached the “limit” of their “flexibility”, while 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 international agreement of 2015, known as 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 in recent 20 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 with our international partners on how to respond to the continuation of the Iranian nuclear program and the lack of cooperation with the IAEA”.
Iranian production of Enriched Uranium Approaches Level Needed for Atomic Bomb %, a purity close to the level needed to manufacture atomic bombs. A reserved 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 in 131, 6 kilos, 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 not have 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 uranium enriched at 60% as material dedicated to doctors, but the IAEA said it was not in a position to guarantee that Iran’s atomic program would be exclusively peaceful.
Inspectors also stressed that Iran’s decision to shut down dozens of surveillance and verification cameras Aiea 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 connecting more and more modern uranium centrifuges, which are much faster and more efficient than those used so far.
