Military Madness > Iran's Uranium Enrichment So Close to Weapons Grade

 

International Atomic Energy Agency head

says Iran deal now irrelevant,

Islamic regime is on cusp of nuke

Dec 19, 2024 10:30 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi has been sounding the alarm about Iran for some time. In September, he warned that Iran had stopped abiding by the nuclear deal three and a half years ago. In February 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed that Iran had accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to that date, and a concentration just 6% below what is needed for a weapon. Iran knew that it was virtually free to develop a nuclear bomb without any accountability. In 2022, Israel had given the nuclear watchdog evidence of four concealed Iranian nuclear sites. Yet nothing was done about it. Iran was left to its own devices.

And now the International Atomic Energy Agency is saying “that there was little point in trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, with Iran already practically a nuclear threshold state.” This statement in itself is not relevant. The nuke deal was a sham to begin with, as it was based on lies, by Iran’s own admission.

A nuke deal cannot stop Iran. Only severe sanctions can, which Trump applied while in power, but which Biden discontinued. Instead of enforcing sanctions, Biden empowered Iran. Whatever abilities to produce a nuclear weapon Iran has acquired is owed to the Biden administration.

UN monitor says reviving Iran deal now irrelevant,

since Tehran on cusp of nuke

Times of Israel, December 17, 2024:

The UN’s top atomic regulator said this week that there was little point in trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, with Iran already practically a nuclear threshold state.

The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi in Italy on Monday underlined growing frustration by the UN monitor toward Iran, which has blown past stockpile limits set by the landmark pact and spurned inspections since Washington abandoned the deal in 2018.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran was only permitted to enrich uranium to 3.68 percent purity, a level consistent with civilian uses of nuclear technology that Iran claims are its only pursuit, capping its stockpile at 300 kilograms.

But according to an IAEA report handed to member states and leaked to the press earlier this month, Iran has begun dramatically expanding its production of uranium enriched to near-weapons grade levels, collecting enough material for several bombs already….

Military Madness > Iran very close to Nuclear Weapons grade uranium - Bloomberg

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Iran: International nuclear inspectors alarmed to find

uranium enriched to 84% purity, now in talks

FEB 21, 2023 9:00 AM 

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

Jihad Watch

The IAEA is backpedaling and trying to save face. In 2020, a report in the Guardian stated:

Iran has admitted a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal by firing up advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges installed at its underground plant at Natanz.

The finding was made by the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Association, and confirmed by the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA.

And in 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered extensive proof that the Obama Iran nuclear deal was based on lies, but the world chose to side with the Shia doomsday regime — except, that is, for Donald Trump, who abandoned the nuclear deal and slapped new sanctions on Iran. As reported by Haaretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a cache of documents he says proves Iran lied to the world about its nuclear program for years, even after the 2015 nuclear deal with the world. “Iran did not come clean about its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said in a prime time address in English. Iran, for its part, blased the speech as “propaganda.”

In 2021, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that Iran was enriching uranium at purity levels that “only countries making bombs are reaching.”

Iran has now returned to full denial mode despite its previous admission, while the IAEA also hides in denial, thus abandoning its duty to monitor Iran.

Now the IAEA says that it is in discussions with Iran, which means nothing, if the past is any indicator. As danger rises steadily from states that are armed with lethal weaponry, America under Joe Biden is absent and lost.

Iran Nuclear Inspectors Find Uranium Enriched to 84% Purity

by Jonathan Tirone, Bloomberg, 

February 19, 2023:

(Bloomberg) — International atomic monitors in Iran have detected uranium enriched to levels just below nuclear weapons-grade, risking an escalation over Tehran’s expanding program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date, and a concentration just 6% below what’s needed for a weapon.

Iran says its decades-long atomic program is for peaceful purposes but Western powers and Israel have accused it of working toward a nuclear bomb. Building a bomb would require further technical steps which have so far not been detected by the IAEA and a political decision to go ahead.

The development was reported by Bloomberg on Sunday, citing two senior diplomats. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had seen the report and is in close contact with the IAEA and European countries about the matter, adding he’ll have more to say when he has more information, according to comments made to reporters in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday.

The development comes as Iran is increasingly isolated from the West, nuclear talks with world powers are suspended and regional tensions have sharpened. Israel has blamed Iran for a Feb. 10 attack on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea, that Iran has denied. It came about a fortnight after a drone strike on a weapons depot near Iran’s city of Isfahan that Tehran blamed on Israel, the latest incident in a string of suspected tit-for-tat attacks.

Iran has also faced widespread condemnation for its deadly crackdown on major protests and the US and European Union have tightened sanctions on Iran over its military support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Inspectors need to determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material, or whether the concentration was an unintended accumulation within the network of pipes connecting the hundreds of fast-spinning centrifuges used to separate the isotopes. It’s the second time this month that monitors have detected suspicious enrichment-related activities…..

Yeah, they accidentally enriched uranium from 60% to 84%!

The next accident could be a really big one. How long will Isreal wait before blowing Natanz to Hell?

Approaching Midnight > Iran Ever Closer to Producing Weapons Grade Uranium Plate

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‘Grave concern’: France, Germany, and UK condemn Iran’s uranium metal production as ‘key step’ in building nukes

12 Feb, 2021 14:18

An Iranian technician works at the Isfahan uranium plant ©  AFP / BEHROUZ MEHRI

The governments of France, Germany and the UK have jointly condemned Iran’s production of uranium metal, branding it a major step on the road to building atomic bombs, according to a joint statement released by the trio on Friday.

On Wednesday, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had manufactured 3.6g of uranium metal at its fuel-plate fabrication plant in the central city of Isfahan.

The so-called E3 group of European states expressed “grave concern” at the move, which they said violated the 2015 nuclear deal, and urged Iran to immediately cease its nuclear development activities.

“Iran has no credible civilian justification for these activities, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon,” the statement read.

The Western trio said Iran’s activities “undermined” ongoing efforts to return to the nuclear deal – a prospect that has been raised by both Tehran and US President Joe Biden in recent weeks.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif hit back at the statement, asking if the E3 countries had “ever read” paragraph 36 of the JCPOA, which covers dispute resolution and the ways Iran and other signatories may exit the deal.

“By what logic is the onus on IRAN to stop its remedial measures undertaken a full year after the US withdrew from—and continues to violate—the JCPOA? What have E3 done to fulfill their duties?” Zarif said in a tweet on Friday.

Wednesday’s report, seen by Reuters, and a previous one, said Iran planned to carry out research on making uranium metal using natural uranium before moving on to creating uranium metal enriched to 20 percent – the level it has now reached.

This is 70 percent short of that considered weapons-grade.

Iran plans to enrich its uranium metal only to the current level, rather than the 90-percent grade that would be necessary for developing weapons, according to Reuters, citing Wednesday’s IAEA report and the nuclear watchdog’s previous findings.

Tehran began breaching its commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after former US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the accord in 2018.

This withdrawal was actioned despite watchdogs saying at the time that Iran was in compliance.

The US nonetheless launched a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against the country.

Following reports of Iran’s uranium-metal production, Zarif said on Thursday it was the Biden administration that needed to comply with the JCPOA.

“US ceased participation in May 2018, violated JCPOA and punished those complying with UN resolution,” he said in a tweet.

“As of today, US remains in EXACTLY same position. Before spouting off, COMPLY.”

Biden has said the US will return to the JCPOA only if Iran demonstrates compliance with the accord, but Tehran has called on Washington to first provide sanctions relief before it makes changes to its nuclear program.

Under the JCPOA, the US and European signatories agreed to provide sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for the country limiting its nuclear activities, including keeping uranium enrichment below the 3.67 percent level.