Iran's stockpiles of near-atomic-grade uranium are growing and negotiations have stalled, IAEA reports say

By François Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran is enriching uranium at a rate close to weapons-grade, while talks to improve cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog have stalled, a show showed Monday two confidential reports from the watchdog.

The International Atomic Energy Agency faces a range of difficulties in Iran, including the fact that it has only implemented a small part of the measures. Rafael Grossi he thought he committed to doing so in a “Joint Declaration” on cooperation last year.

“There has been no progress over the past year in the implementation of the joint declaration of March 4, 2023,” says one of two reports to member states, both seen by Reuters.

Grossi visited Iran this month for talks with Iranian officials aimed at improving IAEA cooperation and monitoring in Iran. Follow-up talks, however, have stalled after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last week.

“The Director General reiterates to the new Iranian government his call and his desire to continue the high-level dialogue and the resulting technical exchanges (…) on May 6 and 7, 2024,” the report adds.

It has been 18 months since the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors last adopted a resolution against Iran, ordering the country to urgently cooperate in a long-running IAEA investigation. for years on uranium particles discovered in three undeclared sites.

Although the number of sites has since been reduced to two, Iran has still not explained how the traces got here.

“The Director General regrets that the outstanding safeguards issues have not been resolved,” the report said, referring to those traces.

France and Britain are pushing for a new resolution at next week's board meeting, which the United States has so far not supported, diplomats say. Iran typically bristles at such resolutions and takes nuclear-related measures in response.

The other report said Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, close to about 90% weapons-grade, increased by 20.6 kg during the quarter to 142.1 kg as of May 11 , and that Iran then diluted 5.9 kg to reach a purity level of 60%. lower level of enrichment.

This means that Iran now has enough material enriched up to 60% purity, if enriched further, for in theory three nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA criterion. It contains enough at lower enrichment levels.

Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for Iran to enrich itself to this level. Iran says its goals are peaceful.

(Reporting by François Murphy, editing by William Maclean and Nick Macfie)