IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi addresses a news conference in Vienna, Austria, June 9 2022. Picture: LISA LEUTNER/REUTERS
Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021. Three months ago, it started enriching to 60% at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons grade is around 90%.“The issue is whether it was a blip in the reconfigured cascades or deliberate. The agency has asked Iran for an explanation,” one of the diplomats told Reuters.
Iran responded to the reimposition of US sanctions by breaching those restrictions and going well beyond them, to the point that IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said the deal is now an “empty shell”.Prospects for reviving the deal are dim, diplomats say, with tensions between Iran and the West high over protests in Iran, the war in Ukraine, and Iran’s continued nuclear advances eroding the time it would need to produce a nuclear bomb if it chose to. Iran denies having such intentions.
The IAEA, which inspects Iran's nuclear facilities, flags significant developments in Iran's activities either in ad hoc reports to the 35-nation board of governors or regular quarterly ones issued before board meetings.
Fabrication at its best. what happened in Iraq? They want to repeat the same