Iran Moving Towards Nuclear Weapons, Watchdog Suggests

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Iran is rapidly moving towards nuclear arms capabilities, with a report suggesting that it accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade.

Tuesday’s warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, were due to fuel tensions with Israel.

The Israeli government opposes the international nuclear deal with Iran that U.S. President Joe Biden seeks to join after his predecessor Donald J. Trump left the pact.

The IAEA said Iran made progress in its work on enriched uranium metal despite objections by Western powers that there is no credible civilian use for such work.

Uranium metal can be used to make the core of a nuclear bomb, but Iran, a strict Islamic republic, claims its aims are peaceful. It said it is only developing reactor fuel.

However, Iran was switching to two clusters of advanced centrifuges enriching up to 60 percent purity from one, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a leaked report. Weapons-grade is around 90 percent purity, according to experts.

Recently Iran was still using one cascade of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at an above-ground plant at Natanz to enrich uranium, according to IAEA investigators. The IAEA later verified that the county was using that cascade and another 153 IR-4 machines for the same purpose.

The move is the latest of many by Iran, breaching the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal, which capped the purity to which Tehran can refine uranium at 3.67 percent.

The United States and its European allies have warned such moves threaten talks on reviving the deal, which are currently suspended. Iran seeks to pressure the U.S. to join the agreement and to lift sanctions against the Islamic nation.

Latest Worthy News