IAEA: Iran is doubling its uranium enrichment to a level close to making a nuclear bomb
IAEA: Iran is doubling its uranium enrichment to a level close to making a nuclear bomb
2024-12-07
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report on Friday that Iran is doubling the rate of uranium enrichment to a level close to making a nuclear bomb. The report, which was submitted by the International Atomic Energy Agency to member states and seen by member states, added that the United Nations agency “confirmed Thursday, that Iran has begun injecting uranium hexafluoride gas enriched to 20% instead of the previous 5% into two linked cascades of centrifuges (IR-6) at Fordow that enrich uranium to 60%, which is close to the 90% needed to make weapons. The report showed that this means that the rate of Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60% will increase significantly, indicating a monthly production rate of more than 34 kilograms at Fordow alone.”
Earlier, the agency’s quarterly report last month showed that Iran’s total production rate at this level at two sites including Fordow was about six kilograms per month.
Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, also hinted on Friday that Tehran sees no difficulty in changing its nuclear doctrine in the event of an existential threat. Kharrazi added that it is also possible to “change Iran’s nuclear doctrine if the nation faces an existential threat,” and continued, “We now have the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons, and the fatwa of the leader of the revolution is the only thing preventing that.”
A fatwa prohibiting the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons was issued by Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2003, and two years later the Iranian government announced it in an official statement at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
It is worth noting that Iranian representatives called, in early October, to reconsider the peaceful nuclear doctrine, to confront Israeli threats to Tehran.
burathanews.com
