IAEA’s Grossi To Visit Iran On Friday, Tehran Media Say
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi will visit Iran Friday for high-level meetings, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Wednesday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi will visit Iran Friday for high-level meetings, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Wednesday.
The visit comes amid discussions with Tehran on the origin of uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7% purity, very close to weapons grade, at its Fordow enrichment plant, a report by the watchdog seen by Reuters confirmed on Tuesday.
Iran has rejected the claims of enrichment up to that level.
Iran began violating the 2015 nuclear deal’s (JCPOA) enrichment limit set at 3.67 percent in 2019 when the Trump administration imposed full oil export sanctions, but until the Biden administration came to office higher enrichment had stayed at around 5 percent.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic's production is at 60 percent according to state media.
Iranian officials have been insisting that a few particles are sometimes enriched beyond set limits, but the quantity is negligible. Eslami repeated the same argument on Wednesday. It is not clear if the IAEA agrees with this explanation.
The UN watchdog has been demanding other explanations from Tehran about its secret nuclear work before 2003 and so far there has been no resolution.
Talks to revive the JCPOA reached an impasse last September while Iran continues to stockpile 60-percent enriched uranium. It is estimated that it can reach weapons grade enrichment in a matter of weeks and can produce four nuclear warheads.
US senators are calling on the international community to take more punitive measures to weaken the Islamic regime and its influence in global conflict.
In an exclusive interview with Iran International, Senator Josh Hawley said the US and global community must do more to remove power from the Islamic regime and work more closely with opposition figures in the country.
He criticized the Biden Administration for its JCPOA policy, saying that Washington must empower its allies in the region instead of holding talks with Iran.
Hawley also expressed support for the Iranian protesters. "We want to stand with them,” he said.
Hawley is one of several US officials calling for firmer action against Iran in the wake of the breakdown of talks to revive the nuclear deal.
Following news that Tehran could be just days away from producing a nuclear bomb, Senator Bob Menendez said he hopes the Biden administration will make a strong shift in its policies towards Iran.
“The reality is the Iranians keep moving in a direction that confronts the world not only in its enrichment … but Iranian drones are part of creating death and destruction,” he said, referring to recent reports that Iranian drones are being used in the war on Ukraine.
Menendez went on to add that Iranians continue their proxy and nefarious activities in the region, including arming the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
It is time, he says, for the Biden administration to understand that no matter the level of diplomatic efforts, Iran is not changing its ways.
“There should be a clear and decisive set of actions that sends a message to the regime in Iran that there are real consequences [to their actions].”
Reporting by Arash Alaei - Washington DC
Iran can produce enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb in “about 12 days,” a top US official warned Tuesday as lawmakers also expressed deep concern.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Colin Kahl, said: “Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days.”
It is the most alarming warning yet of the threat Iran's nuclear capabilities pose. In September, Israel’s then defense minister, Benny Gantz, told the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear warheads within a few weeks.
US officials have repeatedly estimated the time it would take to acquire the fissile material for a nuclear bomb to be a matter of weeks but have not yet been as specific as Kahl was. Speaking to a House of Representatives hearing, he admitted that "Iran's nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable,” sending a clear warning that the Islamic republic had become a global threat.
Iran began violating the JCPOA enrichment limit set at 3.67 percent in 2019 when the Trump administration imposed full oil export sanctions but until the Biden administration came to office higher enrichment had stayed at around 5 percent.
In early 2021, Tehran toughened its position and said it would begin to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity, as the new US administration signaled its readiness to open talks to revive the JCPOA. Later Iran increased enrichment to 60 percent, which has no civilian use.
Kahl said that though the US would prefer to take the diplomatic approach to resolving the nuclear issue, it was unlikely since the recent breakdown in talks meant that “right now, the JCPOA is on ice”.
Talks to revive the JCPOA that began in April 2021 reached a deadlock last September and the administration insists it is no longer focused on reviving the accord.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that monitors Iran’s nuclear program was quoted Tuesday as confirming that its inspectors have found traces of uranium enriched to 84 percent – just a short step away from 90-percent enrichment needed for bomb material.
Many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle oppose lifting US economic sanctions on a country that is engaged in repression at home and “malign activities” abroad, including arming Russia with drones and possibly other weapons.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the foreign relations committee told Iran International Tuesday that the Biden administration should understand that rather than Iran changing its way, “on the contrary, it is doubling down”.
He did, however, express hope that Iran’s alarming 84-percent enrichment would bring about a shift in Biden’s policy.
Iran’s wider role in global conflict was addressed on Tuesday at a media call with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul, who told reporters that the US and its allies are moving to treat the Islamic Republic as a "global threat”, because of its growing military alliance with Russia.
"We are now at a point where Iranian threats are no longer specific to the Middle East, but a global challenge," she said, reinforcing recent warnings by senior administration officials.
"It is reasonable to expect that the tactics, techniques and procedures that the Iranians are learning and perfecting in Ukraine will one day come back to our partners in the Middle East, which is why we are increasing cooperation now, intelligence sharing, understanding these networks and increasing our collective defensive capabilities so that we are prepared to counter these threats in the region," she added.
The UN nuclear watchdog is in discussions with Iran on the origin of uranium particles enriched to up to 83.7%, a report by agency confirmed on Tuesday.
The report seen by Reuters is the first official indication by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that indeed Iran’s high level of enrichment, very close to weapons grade is true.
"Iran informed the Agency that 'unintended fluctuations in enrichment levels may have occurred during transition period at the time of commissioning the process of [60%] product (November 2022) or while replacing the feed cylinder'. Discussions between the Agency and Iran to clarify the matter are ongoing," the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report said.
Bloomberg reported on February 19 that IAEA inspectors had come across uranium particles enriched to 84 percent, but the agency had not confirmed or denied the report since then.
Bloomberg said that the IAEA needed to determine whether the higher-grade enrichment was intentional or the result of unintended technical processes. Earlier in February, inspectors had found an unusual set-up in interconnections of enrichment machines, called centrifuges.
The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran immediately rejected Bloomberg's report as "distortion of facts" and said, "We have not enriched uranium to purity levels above 60 percent so far." He added that the IAEA has informed Tehran that "the presence of uranium particles with above 60-percent purity is common in sampling."
However, this week Iranian officials began to argue that such unintended higher-level enrichment sometimes happens in the fast-spinning centrifuge machines.
Iran’s Nuclear Agency Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Friday [Feb 24] that finding highly-enriched uranium particles in the pipes connecting centrifuges was a “normal issue.”
“For example, we are producing 5 percent enriched [uranium], 11 percent particle is seen in it, or we are producing 20 percent [enriched uranium], 47 percent particle is seen in it. We had several correspondences about this in the past… it’s a natural thing in enrichment,” he noted.
“The machine is spinning fast. If the amount of the feed decreases for a moment, the enrichment will increase by a few percent; but it doesn’t matter because the end product is what matters.”
Iranian officials also said that they expect IAEA inspectors and possible its director Rafael Grossi to travel to Tehran, but did not specify that any visit would be related to the highly enriched particles.
In the past two years, the Islamic Republic has reduced IAEA’s monitoring access to its nuclear installations and has violated limits set by the 2015 nuclear accord (JCPOA) with world powers that kept enrichment at 3.67 percent. Tehran began violating the limit in 2019, when the US imposed full oil export sanctions after withdrawing from the JCPOA.
Nearly two years of diplomatic attempts to restore the deal have failed, with the West also becoming critical of Iran’s bloody crackdown on popular protests and its supply of military drones to Russia.
Any of the three European signatories of the JCPOA, the United Kingdom, France or Germany could trigger a UN Security Council mechanism enshrined in the agreement, to reinstate international sanctions on Iran for its enrichment violations.
The IAEA Board of Governors will have its next meeting on March 6 and a report on Iran will be discussed. If the new violation is presented at the meeting, Western countries may decide to take the issue to the Security Council.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says there are only two ways to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon: Going back to sanctions or have a credible military option.
Cohen made the remarks on Tuesday during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin.
“The fingerprints of Iran state terrorism can be seen in the case of Ukraine. The Iranian regime is no longer just a regional problem but also a problem to Europe and today to the world,” stressed Cohen.
He went on to say that the international community cannot ever accept a nuclear Iran and Tehran must be forced to return to full compliance with international law and the and its nuclear obligations, including cooperation with the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Eneergy Agency.
“This is the time…. This is the time to take steps. This is the time to do actions to prevent Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon,” added Cohen.
Elsewhere in his statements, Cohen called on Germany to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terror organization and extend the designation to all Europe.
“Iran is like a cancer. It finances Hamas, the Jihad, and Hezbollah. A few days ago, the anti-Semitic Iranian regime imposed sanctions on German Jewish leaders and local organization. Israelis and Germans need to fight this together.”
For her part, Germany’s Baerbock said any nuclear escalation by Iran would be "devastating for the whole region".
She said Germany and Israel have a shared concern over reports Iran was enriching uranium to 84 per cent.
Canada says it has imposed sanctions on 12 senior officials from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Law Enforcement Forces for their role in "gross and systematic human rights violations."
In a statement Canada's foreign ministry announced on Monday that the targeted officials include Kurdistan Province Governor Esmaeil Zarei Kousha and Morteza Mir Aghaei, Commander of Basij paramilitary forces in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province.
The measures prohibit dealings with the listed individuals, effectively freezing any assets they may hold in Canada.
They are also inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, added the statement.
“Ottawa will continue to coordinate with its international partners to respond to the Iranian regime’s egregious treatment of its people, its deployment of propaganda and its actions that continue to threaten international peace and stability.”
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada earlier stated that “The Iranian regime continues to brutally oppress its people and to deny them their fundamental rights and freedoms. We hear the pleas of the Iranian people, and we commend them for their bravery and resilience. Canada will not stop advocating for Iranians and their human rights.”
Iran’s suppression of nationwide protests since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September has drawn condemnation from international community with US and EU imposing sanctions on the regime.
