Iran has enriched uranium closer to the level required to arm nuclear missiles, according to evidence discovered at an underground facility by the UN’s atomic agency.
In its latest report on Iran’s nuclear activity, the International Atomic Energy Agency said
it had found traces of uranium enriched up to 27 per cent at the Fordow enrichment plant near Qom.
That is substantially below the 90 per cent level needed to make the fissile core of nuclear weapons. But it is above Iran’s highest-known enrichment grade of 20 per cent, the level from which uranium can quickly turned into weapons-grade material.
Diplomats shown the report, which was distributed among the agency’s 35 member states today, said it was possible the centrifuges may have initially “over-enriched” at the start of their output. The IAEA said Iran had claimed the higher-grade enrichment may have happened “for technical reasons beyond the operator’s control”.
However, the finding will intensify concerns that Iran is merely using the current round of international talks to play for time while it pursues its nuclear ambitions.
The IAEA’s report also confirmed that Iran had added a further 350 centrifuges – capable of churning out 20 percent uranium – this year at the Fordow facility, in addition to 700 installed earlier.
The disclosures came the day after the conclusion of the first direct talks between Iran and the international community in years and will undermine confidence that a breakthrough can be reached when negotiations resume in Moscow on June 17-18.
The main bone of contention was – and will remain – whether or not the Islamic republic meets demands to stop 20 per cent enrichment and hand over its stockpile of uranium of that grade.
In exchange, Tehran expects some of the tough sanctions it is under to be relaxed. Convinced Tehran is moving towards building a nuclear bomb, the US and EU have targeted Iran’s oil exports and effectively barred the country from international banking networks. The EU is due to ban all Iranian fuel imports on July 1, shutting the door on almost one fifth of Iran’s market.
But the concessions offered by Baroness Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief who is representing the international powers in the talks, are unlikely to satisfy the Iranians, who have always maintained their nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.
She reportedly offered measures such as supplying fuel for producing medical isotopes, technical assistance, easing restrictions on aircraft parts.
Analysts said that Iran and the world powers cannot afford to leave Moscow without clear progress, after what Trita Parsi, author of a recent book about US diplomacy towards Iran called the “calculated failure” of the Baghdad meeting.
Iran started enriching to 20 per cent last year, saying it needed the material to fuel a research reactor and for medical purposes, though it already has far more than it requires for either function.
Fordow is carved into a mountain, raising concerns that it would be impervious to attack from Israel or the United States, which have not ruled out using force as a last option if diplomacy fails to curb Iran’s nuclear ambition.
Source: The Telegraph
