Iran's nuclear leap "extremely serious", hurts diplomacy, Western source says

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."