UN watchdog reports Iran is still breaching nuclear deal
Iran has continued to increase stockpiles of enriched uranium and remains in contravention of its deal with world powers, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said on Friday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported the finding in a confidential document distributed to member countries which also raised concerns about continued denial of access to sites.
It was revealed that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile was almost eight times over the limit set under the terms of a 2015 nuclear deal.
The agreement set down a limit of 300 kilograms of enriched uranium in a particular compound form, which is the equivalent of 202.8kg of uranium. Iran’s stockpile stood at 1,571.6kg on May 20.
Iran signed the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia. The US pulled out of the deal unilaterally in 2018.
The IAEA reported that Iran has also been continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of 4.5 per cent, higher than the 3.67 per cent allowed under the JCPOA. It is also above the pact’s limitations on heavy water, a vital component of certain types of nuclear reactor.
The nuclear deal promised Iran economic incentives in return for the curbs on its nuclear programme.
It is now in breach of all restrictions outlined by the JCPOA, which Tehran said it hoped will pressure the other nations involved to increase economic incentives to make up for sanctions imposed by Washington after the US withdrawal.
The IAEA said it has maintained its verification and monitoring activities in the country, primarily by chartering aircraft to fly inspectors to and from Iran. Concerns over access to nuclear sites remained.
The agency also repeated its warning that Iran has continued for months to deny it access to sites of interest.
An IAEA report in March admonished Tehran for failing to answer questions about past nuclear activities at three sites and denying access to two of them.
Diplomats have said the IAEA was looking into activities at those sites before the 2015 deal.
Friday’s report detailed suspected activities and materials including “the possible presence ... of natural uranium at a site that underwent extensive sanitisation and levelling in 2003 and 2004”.
Sanitisation is a term used to suggest activity to remove traces of nuclear material.
The archive of past Iranian nuclear work obtained by Israel has given the IAEA more information on the Islamic republic’s activities.
The report also described the possible use and storage of nuclear material at another location specified by the agency where outdoor, conventional explosive testing may have taken place in 2003, including in relation to testing of shielding in preparation for the use of neutron detectors.
One of the three sites was sanitised, while another “underwent significant changes ... including the demolition of most buildings” – both in the early 2000s – and at the other the IAEA observed activities consistent with efforts to sanitise from July 2019.