VIENNA — Iran has again boosted its stock of highly
enriched uranium, the UN's nuclear watchdog reported on Wednesday, just days
ahead of an expected visit by its chief to Tehran.
اضافة اعلان
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave fresh
estimates of Iran's uranium stockpile and complained of issues relating to its
reduced access to Iran's facilities in two reports seen by AFP.
Diplomats are preparing to restart talks in Vienna on
November 29 over reviving the moribund 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world
powers.
The remaining parties to the deal — Britain, China, France,
Germany and Russia — will join the talks while the US will participate
indirectly.
In one of its reports the IAEA estimated Iran's stockpile of
highly enriched uranium as of November 6 at 2,489.7kg — many times in excess of
the limit laid down in the 2015 agreement.
The total amount now includes 113.8kg enriched to 20
percent, up from 84.3kg in September, and 17.7kg enriched up to 60 percent, up
from 10kg, the report said.
A spokesman for Iran's atomic agency told Fars news agency
on Wednesday that IAEA chief Rafael Grossi would arrive in Tehran next Monday.
Grossi will meet Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
and Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) chief Mohammad Eslami on Tuesday,
the spokesman added.
Grossi expressed concern on November 12 over his lack of
contact with the new Iranian government of President Ebrahim Raisi, describing
it as "astonishing".
He said he had hoped to meet Iranian officials ahead of the
next meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors, scheduled for next week.
'Excessively invasive' searches
During Grossi's last visit to Tehran in September, he
clinched a deal on access to monitoring equipment at Iran's nuclear facilities.
But days later, the IAEA complained that it was prevented
from "indispensable" access to a unit at the TESA complex in the city
of Karaj, near Tehran, in violation of the September deal.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA however rejected the charge,
tweeting that "equipment related to this complex are not included for
servicing", referring to IAEA work on its monitoring equipment.
The IAEA on Wednesday also "categorically" denied
its cameras had played a part in an unclaimed June attack on the TESA complex.
Tehran — which has blamed its arch-enemy Israel — had told
the agency it was investigating the possibility, the IAEA said in its report.
The agreement that Grossi reached in September was an
extension of a deal struck in February after Iran limited some of the IAEA's
activities in the country.
However, Wednesday's report warned that the repeated
prolongation of the agreement was "becoming a significant challenge to the
agency's ability to restore ... continuity of knowledge" about Iran's
nuclear activities.
It warned specifically that establishing clarity on
activities in Karaj "has been widely recognized as essential in relation
to a return to the JCPOA," referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.
The Vienna talks later this month will discuss the
possibility of reviving that agreement, which offered Tehran relief from
sanctions in exchange for major curbs on its nuclear activities.
The US unilaterally pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018 under
the administration of President Donald Trump.
In response, Iran began in 2019 walking back on its
commitments under the nuclear deal, notably increasing its uranium enrichment.
In a separate report also issued on Wednesday, the IAEA said
there had been virtually no progress in resolving several questions the agency
has about the previous presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites in the
country.
That report also noted that Grossi was "concerned by
the incidences of Agency inspectors being subjected to excessively invasive
physical searches by security officials at nuclear facilities" and called
on Iran to "take immediate steps to rectify the situation".
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