Iran Denies Taking Any Unlawful Nuclear Measure

Iran has not implemented any nuclear measure against the law, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is aware of all its activities, a lawmaker said, amid reports suggesting the detection of highly enriched uranium in the country. 
“Western countries make a fuss and launch media campaigns to advance their own agenda,” Fereydoun Abbasi, member of the Majlis Energy Commission, told ICANA. 
A report was published last week by Bloomberg, citing two diplomats as saying that the IAEA has found uranium enriched to 84% in Iran, very close to weapons grade which is around 90%. 
The IAEA said on Twitter that it was aware of recent media reports and that it was discussing the results of recent verifications with Iran and would inform the IAEA Board of Governors as appropriate. 
Iran dismissed the report as a political attempt to impose further pressure on the country, pointing out that other levels of purity may naturally be produced as a by-product in the enrichment process.
Abbasi blamed the West for publicizing allegations, stressing that Iran’s nuclear activities are none of other countries’ concern. 
“They want to divert the attention of the society and impose economic pressure on the nation to carry out another scheme against the Islamic Republic,” the former nuclear chief said. “We need to prepare ourselves to foil the western countries’ plots.”  
He also noted that Iran has developed its enrichment capabilities and is currently able to produce uranium at purity levels higher than 90%. 
“But we enrich uranium based on our [peaceful] needs,” he added. 
Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity since April 2021, much above the 3.67% cap imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in return for sanctions relief. 
The measure was part of Iran’s countermeasures against the United States’ reimposition of sanctions, after its withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018. 
The Islamic Republic’s first step was enrichment at 20% purity, which was needed for the Tehran reactor, according to Abbasi. 
“We moved toward 60% enrichment to produce the required fuel for nuclear propulsions … for submarines,” he explained. 

Consistently Compliant 

Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had said earlier in an interview that finding highly-enriched uranium particles in the pipes connecting centrifuges is “normal”, stressing that the end product is what matters.
Behrouz Kamalvandi underlined that Iran has still consistently “complied” with the safeguards, adding that “15 reports of the agency itself are proof of our honesty and that Iran has fully fulfilled its obligations.”
The safeguards commitments have a very clear meaning and what the agency should monitor is the amount and method of using atomic materials, according to Kamalvandi.
“The safeguards has nothing to do with centrifuges, it has nothing to do with research, it should not have anything to do with … the sites where you don’t have original atomic materials,” he noted.
Kamalvandi said that based on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and safeguard regulations Iran reserves the “right to produce whatever percentage it wants.”
The senior official also criticized the IAEA for allowing the correspondence between Tehran and the agency to leak to the press, saying such false and baseless accusations against Iran’s nuclear program are “politically motivated”. 
Earlier this month, the agency had also criticized Iran for failing to inform it of a “substantial” change to the interconnections between the two cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges enriching uranium to up to 60% at the Fordow enrichment plant. 
Kamalvandi said the agency was informed of the “mistake” by the inspector, who came back for another inspection and confirmed that Iran had not made any such changes. 
The IAEA report against Iran, however, prompted the three European countries and the United States to issue a censure statement, which Kamalvandi described as “premeditated”.