IAEA report: Iran does not respect its obligations

IAEA Headquarters
The United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany denounced Iran’s “inadequate” response to a call from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday after its experts reported an undeclared technical change to its nuclear program. The UN body responsible for verifying the peaceful nature of nuclear activities drew the attention of the regime in Tehran on Wednesday after it found a change in the operation mode for enriching uranium to 60% at the underground Fordo plant, which had not been previously reported. Iran countered by saying that it was an error caused by the “negligence” of an IAEA inspector. “Iran’s claims that these actions are the result of an error are inadequate,” Washington, Paris, London, and Berlin responded in a joint statement.
“Iran’s actions are judged on the basis of objective and impartial IAEA reports, not on the basis of its alleged intentions,” they added. According to a report, the IAEA “detected, during an unannounced visit on January 21, that two cascades of centrifuges were interconnected in a significantly different way” than what had been stated by the Iranian sidey 21, that two cascades of centrifuges were interconnected in a significantly different way” than what had been stated by the Iranian side. Western countries assessed on Friday that the change is “incompatible with Iran’s obligations” and that “this lack of prior notification compromises the agency’s ability to maintain an early detection capability at Iran’s nuclear facilities.” “We remind you that Iran’s highly enriched uranium production at the Fordo enrichment facility presents significant proliferation risks and has no credible civilian justification,” they insisted, calling Tehran’s actions “worrisome.” Fordo has been closely monitored since Iran began producing 60%-enriched uranium here in November 2022, in addition to Natanz. This threshold far exceeds the 3.67% set by the international nuclear agreement of 2015 and approaches 90%, which is necessary to produce an atomic bomb.
By Paul Bumman