VIENNA: Iran has resumed enriching uranium at a similar rate as at the start of the year, the IAEA said Tuesday, as the country accelerates its nuclear program while denying it is developing a bomb.
Iran has “increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
Iran has increased its production of 60 percent enriched uranium to a rate of about 9 kilogrammes (20 pounds) a month since the end of November. That’s up from about 3 kilogrammes a month since June, and a return to the 9 kilogrammes a month it was producing during the first half of 2023, the IAEA said.
“On 19 and 24 December, IAEA inspectors verified the rate of production of uranium enriched to this level at the two facilities where Iran is carrying out these activities — the Natanz Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant and the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” it said.
Nuclear weapons require uranium enriched to 90 percent, while 3.67 percent is enough for nuclear power stations.
Iran appeared to have slowed its enrichment as a gesture while informal talks for a nuclear treaty had resumed with the United States.
But animosity between the two countries has intensified in recent months, with each one accusing the other of exacerbating the war between Israel and Hamas.
In November, a confidential IAEA report seen by AFP indicated that Iran’s enriched uranium stocks were 22 times the limits authorized in the 2015 accord limiting Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions.
That accord fell apart in 2018 when then president Donald Trump pulled out the United States.
His successor Joe Biden has tried to revive the accord through talks in Vienna, but the process has been at a standstill since the summer of 2022.
Iran, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has prevented IAEA inspections and disconnected surveillance cameras installed at its nuclear program sites.
In November, it held 567.1 kilogrammes of uranium enriched at 20 percent and 128.3 kilogrammes at 60 percent, three times what would be needed to build an atomic bomb if enriched to 90 percent.
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Iran resumes pace of 60 percent uranium enrichment, IAEA says
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Iran resumes pace of 60 percent uranium enrichment, IAEA says
- Iran increased its production of 60 percent enriched uranium to a rate of about 9 kg a month since the end of November
Trump demands role in choosing next Iran leader, Khamenei's son ‘unacceptable’
- US president tells Axios US would likely return to war within five years without a favorable leader in Iran
- Draws parallel with Venezuela where interim president Delcy Rodriguez has cooperated under threat of violence
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he should have a role in picking Iran’s next supreme leader after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose son he said he found unacceptable.
“Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy,” Trump told Axios in an interview, drawing a comparison to Venezuela, where interim president Delcy Rodriguez has cooperated with him under threat of violence after the United States ousted her boss, Nicolas Maduro.
Trump told the news outlet that the United States would likely return to war within five years without a favorable leader in Iran.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump was quoted saying by the news outlet.
It was unclear in what way Trump would be able to take a role in the Islamic republic’s selection of a new supreme leader, a decision made by an assembly of senior Shiite Muslim clerics mostly staunchly opposed to the United States. Trump was raised a Presbyterian.
But his remarks imply a willingness to work with someone from within the Islamic republic rather than seek to topple the government, which has been a sworn enemy of the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.
The late shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, has proposed that he return as a transitional figure before Iran drafts a new constitution as a secular democracy. Pahlavi earlier Thursday said that any new supreme leader within the Islamic republic would be illegitimate.
Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran since 1989 with hard-line policies that included repression at home and confrontation with neighboring countries, was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike as Israel and the United States opened war.
His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is considered one of the contenders to succeed his father, who was only the second supreme leader after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In Venezuela, Trump ordered a deadly January 3 attack in which US forces snatched Maduro, a longtime US nemesis.
Rather than backing the opposition long championed by the United States, Trump has said he has been pleased by Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president but has cooperated on key US demands, notably on benefiting oil companies.
She is doing so under Trump’s threat of violence if she does not do what he wants, particularly on access to natural resources.
“Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy,” Trump told Axios in an interview, drawing a comparison to Venezuela, where interim president Delcy Rodriguez has cooperated with him under threat of violence after the United States ousted her boss, Nicolas Maduro.
Trump told the news outlet that the United States would likely return to war within five years without a favorable leader in Iran.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump was quoted saying by the news outlet.
It was unclear in what way Trump would be able to take a role in the Islamic republic’s selection of a new supreme leader, a decision made by an assembly of senior Shiite Muslim clerics mostly staunchly opposed to the United States. Trump was raised a Presbyterian.
But his remarks imply a willingness to work with someone from within the Islamic republic rather than seek to topple the government, which has been a sworn enemy of the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.
The late shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, has proposed that he return as a transitional figure before Iran drafts a new constitution as a secular democracy. Pahlavi earlier Thursday said that any new supreme leader within the Islamic republic would be illegitimate.
Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran since 1989 with hard-line policies that included repression at home and confrontation with neighboring countries, was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike as Israel and the United States opened war.
His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is considered one of the contenders to succeed his father, who was only the second supreme leader after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In Venezuela, Trump ordered a deadly January 3 attack in which US forces snatched Maduro, a longtime US nemesis.
Rather than backing the opposition long championed by the United States, Trump has said he has been pleased by Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president but has cooperated on key US demands, notably on benefiting oil companies.
She is doing so under Trump’s threat of violence if she does not do what he wants, particularly on access to natural resources.
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