On Wednesday, September 7, Reuters reported that a United Nations “nuclear watchdog” reported that Iran is very close to having enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb.
Uranium enriched to 90% is needed for a weapon, and Iran now has about 60%.
The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and other countries, which was broken by the Trump administration in 2018, cut off Iran at 20%, the percentage it had already achieved when the deal was agreed upon. Since the deal was broken, Iran has notably increased its stock of uranium enriched to 60% purity.
When the deal was broken, sanctions were imposed on Iran, which caused Iran to go ahead with their nuclear program and increase their capabilities.
“Iran now can produce 25 kg (of uranium) at 90% if they want to,” a senior diplomat said in response to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he was asked if Iran had enough material enriched to 60% for an atomic bomb.
The diplomat commented that it would take Iran only three to four weeks to make enough uranium for a bomb. The IAEA would be able to detect that activity but it would take a few days. Iran said it is not intending to do so.
Talks between Iran and the US have been unsuccessful so far. The US is trying to revive the deal and get Iran to put its production on hold.
A problem in the talks is that Iran refuses to explain where it got the uranium for three sites that are undeclared. Iran wants the IAEA to stop investigating those sites.
The IAEA insists that the undeclared sites are a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, that Iran signed in 1968, and are outside the scope of the scrapped 2015 deal.
Iran was one of the original 62 signers of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the most important global treaty controlling nuclear weapons. It went into effect in 1970 and banned countries, except the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France from acquiring nuclear weapons. By 2020, 190 countries had signed the treaty.
“The Director General is increasingly concerned that Iran has not engaged with the Agency on the outstanding safeguards issues during this reporting period and, therefore, that there has been no progress towards resolving them,” the IAEA said in another report on Wednesday.
US intelligence indicates that Iran had another secret nuclear weapons program before 2003, but Iran denies it.
Iran has threatened to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty multiple times.
