The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will arrive this evening, Friday, in Tehran, and will meet with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, for discussions on Iran’s nuclear program.
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The National Atomic Energy Agency announces the discovery of highly enriched uranium particles at Fordow
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will arrive in Tehran this evening, Friday, for discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, following the agency announced the discovery of particles of enriched uranium to a level close to making an atomic bomb.
According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, particles of uranium enriched to 83.7%, or just under the 90% needed to produce an atomic bomb, were discovered in the underground Fordow plant, 100 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.
Grossi, who received an invitation from Iran to hold the talks, is scheduled to meet several Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi. During his visit, he will seek access to the site and “increase the number of verifications” of the matter, according to a diplomatic source in Vienna.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Grossi would then speak to the press upon his return to Vienna on Saturday. Following the outcomes of this visit, the United States, Britain, France and Germany will decide whether to submit a draft resolution to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, scheduled to meet next week in Vienna.
Grossi had expressed, in a confidential report to member states, his “concern regarding an undeclared change in the interdependence between two sets of IR-6 centrifuges to enrich uranium up to 60% at the Fordow nuclear facility,” at a time when Iran denied that. A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said, “The presence of a uranium atom or atoms higher than 60% in the enrichment process does not mean enrichment above 60%.”
Kamalvandi said that the matter is normal during the enrichment process, stressing that the most important thing is the final product, whose enrichment does not exceed 60%, explaining that the International Atomic Energy Agency knows this very well.
Kamalvandi added that the agency’s presentation of these issues in the media indicates that it has begun to lose its impartiality, and that this affects its credibility.
Commenting on the report, France described, yesterday, Thursday, the “unprecedented developments” as “extremely worrying”.
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters: “This report points to a very worrying path that Iran is following, and it has no justification. It is an unprecedented and very dangerous development.”
Legendre added: “The report also indicates that the International Atomic Energy Agency does not have the ability to consolidate its continued access to information regarding the Iranian nuclear program.”
And she continued, “We express our full support for the agency in its efforts to obtain all clarifications from Iran. The latter’s compliance with its international obligations is at stake.”
This comes at a time when a senior official in the US Department of Defense announced, on Tuesday, that Iran might produce enough fissile material for one nuclear bomb “within 12 days.”
The director of the CIA, William Burns, expressed his concern regarding the sudden progress of Iran’s nuclear program, adding that “the Iranians only need a few weeks to reach 90% enrichment if they decide to exceed this ceiling.”
He said, “The United States does not believe that Mr. Ali Khamenei decided to resume the armaments program, which we estimate was suspended or halted at the end of 2003.”