IAEA Says Iran Natanz Nuclear Parts Workshop Is Underground
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said Thursday that Iran’s new workshop for making machine parts for enriching uranium at Natanz was underground.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said Thursday that Iran’s new workshop for making machine parts for enriching uranium at Natanz was underground.
The International Atomic Energy Agency informed member states two weeks ago that Tehran had moved machines to a more secure setting from Karaj, west of Tehran, where its factory was sabotaged in June 2021 in an attack widely attributed to Israel.
Grossi told Associated Press Wednesday that the new plant, part of the larger site at Natanz where uranium is enriched, reflected the growth in Iran’s nuclear program. “The activity is not new, but the production lines, the production capacities, are being expanded,” he said.
Grossi said Wednesday that “political circumstance” should be overcome for effective UN monitoring of the Iran nuclear program to resume, stressing the agency’s work both in inspecting Iranian atomic facilities and in pursuing answers over past nuclear activities.
While the IAEA is not directly involved in Vienna talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Grossi has made clear the agency’s knowledge and supervision of Iran’s nuclear activities was undermined by the United States in 2018 leaving the JCPOA and Iran’s 2019 decision to reduce IAEA access and break JCPOA nuclear limits.
Tehran is due to satisfy the agency’s concerns by June 21 over work carried out before 2003 in sites where the IAEA later detected traces of uranium.
On the sidelines of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Virginia’s Tim Kaine and Maryland’s Ben Cardin told Iran International that former president Donalds Trump’s move to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) made Iran move closer to nuclear breakout capacity.
In reaction to remarks by a former senior Iranian lawmaker who disclosed that Iran’s aim from the beginning was to produce nuclear weapons, they concurred that regular “intrusive inspections” and finding “an enforceable deal” is the way to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Kaine said that the 2015 nuclear agreement, “provided a significant window of time before they could break out”, calling for returning to intrusive inspections to enable the world to know if Iran is going to violate its pledges under the JCPOA and “to make sure that they are honoring their commitments”.
“The Trump decision to terminate the JCPOA has now put Iran right back at the threshold of the breakout capacity, which anyone would have predicted”, he said.
Cardin said, “We never thought they were giving up their desire to be a nuclear-weapon state. But it was put in check, it was put on hold. We have lost that now”.
About Iran’s demand for removing the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), Cardin said it is a proper concern to question whether there will be some relaxation on that.
On the sidelines of the session, Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz also told Iran International’s Arash Alaei that it is a positive step that Blinken acknowledged terrorist activities by the IRGC, but expressed disappointment that he “wasn't willing to answer straight out” if it is true that Iranians have refused to renounce any intention of killing former US officials.
“Three times I asked Secretary Blinken that question, three times he refused to answer the question. I think the reason is obvious, because the answer... is yes”, he said.
Cruz said it is “utterly indefensible” to delist the IRGC and give the Islamic Republic billions of dollars even when it is “actively trying to murder former US officials”. “The IRGC is a vicious terrorist organization”, he stated.
During the committee session earlier in the day, several Senators told Secretary Blinken to walk away from the Vienna negotiations to restore the nuclear deal with Iran.
