Iran on Monday denied reports that it had enriched uranium to 84 percent, less than the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday evening that it was in discussions with Tehran after Bloomberg News reported that watchdog inspectors in Iran last week found uranium enriched to 84 percent purity.
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The report comes as negotiations stalled to revive a landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran was last known to have enriched uranium to 60 percent. Uranium enriched to 90 percent purity is considered a nuclear weapon.
The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behruz Kamalvandi, on Monday described the report as “slanderous” and a “distortion of facts”, according to the state news agency IRNA.
“The presence of uranium particles or particles above 60 percent in the enrichment process does not mean enrichment of more than 60 percent,” he said.
A diplomat confirmed AFP 84 percent reported by Bloomberg, saying “the percentage is true”.
The IAEA “gave Iran an opportunity to explain because there may be a so-called ‘spike’ of higher enrichment levels,” the diplomat added.
– ‘Very worried’ –
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said her country was in contact with the IAEA to “have more precise information”.
France was part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal along with China, Germany, Russia and the UK.
“You don’t say that this press information is confirmed, proven, this will be a new element and very worrying,” he told reporters in Brussels.
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Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, said on Monday that his country was “committed” to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
He warned against the politicization of the role of the UN nuclear watchdog, saying it was “stealing his position”.
“These agencies must act within the framework of specific tasks,” he said.
Iran sanctions
The 2015 agreement promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for its nuclear program to refrain from developing nuclear weapons – something Tehran has always rejected.
But the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting it to restart its commitments under the agreement.
Negotiations between world powers to return to the deal began in 2021 but have been frozen since last year.
During a call on Sunday afternoon with European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian indicated that a visit by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to Tehran is still planned.
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“If the agency acts with technical and not political goals, it may agree on a framework to resolve” the nuclear dispute, Amir-Abdollahian said.
Borrell said he asked Amir-Abdollahian during the phone call to “meet his obligations” regarding the IAEA “because of some worrying news about uranium enrichment”.