Iran triples its uranium production
Since the USA unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018 under then President Trump, Tehran has also ceased to adhere to the agreements. It is now known that the country is enriching significantly more uranium than in previous months.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has again enriched significantly more uranium since November, bringing it even closer to meeting the requirements for building a nuclear bomb. According to the IAEA, the country has increased its monthly production of 60 percent enriched uranium to nine kilograms per month since November - having previously reduced production to three kilograms per month since June.
Iran had communicated its production plans at the end of November. IAEA inspectors verified the information during visits on December 19 and 24, the IAEA announced. The production facilities in question are Natan and Fordow. Uranium enriched to around 90 percent is required to build nuclear weapons, while enrichment to 3.67 percent is sufficient to generate electricity using nuclear power. According to the information, Iran already has enough uranium with a purity of 60 percent to be able to produce three nuclear bombs if further enrichment were to take place.
In the summer, Iran reduced enrichment while informal talks with representatives of the USA on a nuclear agreement were resumed. Since the start of the war between the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which is allied with Iran, and Israel, however, tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased considerably again.
In November, the IAEA wrote in a confidential report that Iran's stockpiles of enriched nuclear fuel were 22 times higher than the amount agreed in the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015.
The USA, France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China concluded the agreement with Iran in 2015. It was intended to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. In return, economic sanctions against Iran were lifted. In 2018, the USA unilaterally withdrew from the agreement under its then President Donald Trump. As a result, Iran also gradually ceased to comply with its obligations and began producing highly enriched uranium, among other things. Since then, negotiations to revive the agreement have remained fruitless.
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The international community, particularly the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has expressed concerns over Iran's increased uranium production, as it could potentially bring Iran closer to developing nuclear weapons, given that uranium enriched to around 90% is required for this purpose. The IAEA has reported an increase in Iran's monthly production of 60% enriched uranium from three kilograms to nine kilograms since November.
Given Iran's tripled uranium production and its past non-compliance with nuclear agreements, the international community, including the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (USA, France, UK, Germany, Russia, and China), are concerned about the revival of the nuclear deal, given that Iran's nuclear program has significantly progressed since the USA's unilateral withdrawal in 2018.
Source: www.ntv.de
