Last week, international atomic energy inspectors found that Iran had stockpiled enriched uranium to a level just short of nuclear weaponsaccording to the new report.
Unnamed senior diplomats Bloomberg said that Iran has stockpiled uranium enriched to 84% purity and a concentration 6% lower than needed for weapons, the highest level detected by inspectors in Iran to date.
Iranian-made centrifuges are displayed at an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Wahid Salemi)
Earlier, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its centrifuges are set to enrich uranium to a purity level of 60%.
It remains unclear whether the material was intentionally produced or whether it was unintentional accumulation in the centrifuges used for isotope separation.
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According to the IAEA, levels as low as 60% are indistinguishable from those required for nuclear weapons, and that most nuclear reactors use material enriched to 5% purity.
“Enriching uranium to 84% purity — whether intentional or accidental — simply should not happen,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
View of the reactor building at the Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, August 8. 21, 2010. (IIPA via Getty Images)
“There is only one way to deal with this. [President Joe] Biden has to work with E3 to lift the sanctions and destroy the architecture surrounding [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)]Taleblu said. “This should be a wake-up call to the international community. Iranian nuclear escalation can and does happen without pressure from the West. Indeed, Iran has been at the helm of the nuclear crisis for as long as Biden has been in power.”
Sunday’s report comes amid criticism of the Iranian regime for its brutal crackdown on anti-government protests and military support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew US support for an Obama-era Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions in 2018, calling the deal “inherently flawed.”
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Under the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the United States Obama administrationworld powers and Iran, sanctions against Tehran were lifted in exchange for Iran’s cooperation in limiting its nuclear program. Tehran expanded its nuclear program after the US pulled out of the nuclear deal.