Iran's acceleration in its enrichment of uranium to close to bomb grade is "extremely serious", has no civilian justification and contradicts Tehran's assertions on wanting serious nuclear negotiations, a Western diplomatic source said on Saturday.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons © Mena Today
Iran's acceleration in its enrichment of uranium to close to bomb grade is "extremely serious", has no civilian justification and contradicts Tehran's assertions on wanting serious nuclear negotiations, a Western diplomatic source said on Saturday.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Friday that Iran was dramatically accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the about 90% level that is weapons grade.
The International Atomic Energy Agency later confirmed in a confidential report to member states that Iran was speeding up uranium enrichment, a process that refines the raw material so that it can be used as fuel in civil nuclear power generation or, potentially, nuclear weapons.
"The information reported by the Director General of the Agency, indicating a significant increase in Iran's capacity to produce highly enriched uranium at 60%, is extremely serious," the Western diplomatic source told Reuters.
"These measures have no credible civilian justification and could, on the contrary, directly fuel a military nuclear programme if Iran were to take the decision...They are in contradiction with Iran's declarations on its willingness to return to credible negotiations."
Reporting by John Irish
Iran and the United States will hold a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran's atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump's threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months despite President Donald Trump telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
In a defiant speech on Friday evening, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, insisted that the group “will not allow anyone to disarm it,” rejecting growing internal calls for the Lebanese state to reclaim exclusive control over the country’s weapons.
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