A growing threat, according to the international community. Iran has continued to increase its stock of enriched uranium in recent months, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director Rafael Grossi is expected in Tehran at the end of the week.
Stocks amounted to 3,760.8 kg on February 12 (against 3,673.7 kg in October), more than 18 times the limit authorized by the 2015 international agreement, according to this text consulted by the Agence France-Presse, a few days before a Board of Governors of the UN body. Above all, Iran is always enriching at high levels, far from the limit set at 3.67%: it thus has 434.7 kg at 20% (compared to 386.4 kg previously) and 87.5 kg at 60% (from 62.3 kg).
The IAEA confirmed on Thursday that it had detected particles of 83.7 percent enriched uranium in Iran, just below the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb, the report added. "Discussions are still ongoing" to determine the origin of these particles, said the UN body, which thus confirms information given by diplomatic sources.
The IAEA has asked for "clarifications" and "discussions are still ongoing" to determine the origin of these particles, adds the report which will be presented next week at the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna. Iran, which denies wanting to acquire atomic weapons, has for its part reported "involuntary fluctuations" during the enrichment process, in a letter to the Agency.
Last week, Tehran claimed "to have made no attempt to enrich beyond 60 percent". "The presence of particles beyond 60% does not mean that there is an enrichment (of uranium) to more than 60%", reacted the spokesman of the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi.
The news comes as talks to revive a 2015 deal to limit Iran's atomic activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions have stalled. They had started in April 2021 in Vienna between Tehran and the great powers, but they have been blocked since August 2022 in a context of growing tensions. The agreement, known by the acronym JCPOA, has been moribund since the withdrawal of the United States in 2018 by President Donald Trump. In the process, the Islamic Republic gradually freed itself from its commitments.
