IAEA chief demands clarifications on Iran’s nuclear programme

PARIS: The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog on Tuesday sounded alarm at Iran’s cooperation with the agency and demanded clarifications over an undeclared site in Tehran where uranium particles were found late last year.

Rafael Grossi, the new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who was in Paris to meet President Emmanuel Macron said: “Iran must decide to cooperate in a clearer manner with the agency to give the necessary clarifications”.

“The fact that we found traces (of uranium) is very important. That means there is the possibility of nuclear activities and material that are not under international supervision and about which we know not the origin or the intent. “That worries me,” Grossi added.

The IAEA issued two reports, one on Iran’s current nuclear programme. and the other detailing its denial of access to two sites the agency wanted to visit.b The IAEA has for months been pressing Tehran for information about the kind of activities being carried out at the undeclared site where the uranium particles were found.

According to a report issued by the IAEA on Tuesday, “the Agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran”. At one of them, the report said the IAEA had from early July 2019 observed “activities… consistent with effort to sanitise part of the location”.

The IAEA report said the agency first raised questions about the sites last year but Iran refused access to two of them that the agency wished to visit in late January. Iran sent the IAEA a letter saying it did “not recognise any allegation on past activities and does not consider itself obliged to respond to such allegations”.

The second report from the agency detailed Iran’s current breaches of several parts of a landmark 2015 international deal on scaling back its nuclear programme.

The report showed Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at more than five times the limit fixed under the accord. It said that as of February 19, 2020 the Iranian stockpile stood at the equivalent of 1,510 kilogrammes, as opposed to the 300 kg limit set under the agreement.

However, it would still need several more steps including further enrichment to make it suitable for use in a weapon. The report says Iran has not been enriching uranium above 4.5 percent, while enrichment level of around 90 percent would be needed for weapons use.

The latest IAEA reports come just days after a meeting in Vienna of the remaining parties to the deal ended without a clear plan to keep the accord alive. The 2015 deal has been hanging by a thread since the US withdrew in May 2018 and imposed stinging sanctions on Iran targeting its oil sector.

The 2015 agreement promised Iran an easing of very damaging economic and other sanctions in return for scaling back its nuclear programme. Tehran has been progressively reducing its commitments to the accord in retaliation for the US move.