IAEA: Iran prevents monitoring of its nuclear program | Abroad

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reached an agreement with Iran on September 12 that allows the agency to resume maintenance of its monitoring equipment and replace its storage media, allowing the agency to monitor Iran’s disputed nuclear program without interruption.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the agreement was implemented everywhere except for the centrifuge workshop in Karaj, west of Tehran. There was also an incident at the Karaj site in June that damaged the cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Then the Iranian media described it as a failed act of sabotage.

The expansion of Iran’s enrichment facilities with increasingly powerful centrifuges is a source of concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the international community. Enriched uranium is used in nuclear reactors, but it can also be used in nuclear weapons. The latter is the great fear of the international community. Uranium processed in Iran is of such high purity that it can be processed relatively faster into a material suitable for weapons.

At the beginning of September, the International Atomic Energy Agency already stated that Iran was increasingly enriching uranium and increasing its stockpile. This is contrary to what was stated in the 2015 nuclear agreement. Then the Iranians promised to limit their nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Tehran has been out of the nuclear deal since 2019, after the United States unilaterally withdrew a year ago and then reimposed sanctions on Iran. It was then-President Trump who withdrew from the nuclear deal, which has since been ignored. The deal was intended to make it more difficult for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.

Negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal began in April in Vienna, but were then suspended after Iran changed the government in June.