MANAMA\/VIENNA
\nIran is \u201cdramatically\u201d accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Friday.
\nThe International Atomic Energy Agency later confirmed in a confidential report to member states that Iran was speeding up uranium enrichment, a process that refines the raw material so that it can be used as fuel in civil nuclear power generation or, potentially, nuclear weapons.
\nThe IAEA findings will deepen alarm in Western countries that say there is no justification for enriching uranium to such a high level under any civilian programme and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.
\nIran denies pursuing nuclear weapons.
\nTehran already has enough material enriched to up to 60% purity to be able to make four nuclear weapons if it enriches it further, according to an IAEA yardstick.
\n\u201cToday the agency is announcing that the production capacity is increasing dramatically of the 60% inventory,\u201d IAEA chief Grossi said on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.
\nHe said Iran\u2019s production capacity was set to rise to \u201cseven, eight times more, maybe, or even more\u201d than the current level of 5-7 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity a month.
\nIn the report to member states, which was seen by Reuters, the IAEA said Iran had increased the enrichment rate of the material being fed into two interconnected cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordow plant.
\nThe plant had already been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity with material enriched to up to 5% purity. The material being fed in now has been enriched to up to 20% purity, accelerating the process of reaching 60%.
\nThat change means Iran will \u201csignificantly\u201d increase the amount of uranium it enriches to 60% purity, reaching more than 34 kg a month at Fordow alone, the report said.
\nIran is also enriching uranium to up to 60% at another site, Natanz.
\nThe report said Iran must as a matter of urgency facilitate tougher safeguards measures, such as inspections, to ensure Fordow is not being \u201cmisused to produce uranium of an enrichment level higher than that declared by Iran, and that there is no diversion of declared nuclear material.\u201d
\nEuropean and Iranian officials last week made little progress in meetings on whether they could enter serious talks on the nuclear programme before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
\n\u2018DANGEROUS AND RECKLESS\u2019
\nTehran was angered by a resolution last month put forward by Britain, Germany and France, known as the E3, and the United States that faulted Iran\u2019s cooperation with the IAEA.
\n\u201cThis is a serious escalatory step by Iran, which we strongly condemn,\u201d a German foreign ministry source said of Iran accelerating uranium enrichment to 60% purity. \u201cIt is obvious that such measures significantly worsen the framework for diplomatic efforts.\u201d
\nKelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association advocacy group in Washington, said Iran\u2019s acceleration at Fordow was \u201ca dangerous and reckless escalation that risks derailing the prospects for negotiations with the United States.\u201d
\n\u201cIncreasing the capacity to move more quickly to multiple bombs\u2019 worth of weapons-grade uranium increases the risk of miscalculation and military action,\u201d she said.
\nAfter pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Trump pursued a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d policy that sought to wreck Iran\u2019s economy. He is staffing his planned administration with hawks on Iran.
\nGrossi said last month Tehran had accepted a \u201crequest\u201d to cap its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% to ease diplomatic tensions.
\nDiplomats said at the time that Tehran\u2019s step was conditional on the IAEA\u2019s 35-nation Board of Governors not passing a resolution against Iran over insufficient cooperation with the agency, which the Board then did.
\n\u201cWe do not have any diplomatic process ongoing which could lead to a de-escalation, or a more stable equation when it comes to Iran,\u201d Grossi said. \u201cThis is regrettable.\u201d
\nThe E3 have said they want revive talks before the 2015 deal expires in October 2025. The deal lifted sanctions against Iran in return for restrictions on Iran\u2019s atomic activities. Since Trump left the deal, Iran has abandoned those restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANAMA\/VIENNA Iran is \u201cdramatically\u201d accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency later confirmed in a confidential report to member states that Iran was speeding up uranium enrichment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-448058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n