Iran has produced uranium metal in a further breach of its nuclear deal with major powers, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.
The step was part of Iran’s “stated aim to produce fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor,” the IAEA said in a statement on Thursday.
The 2015 nuclear agreement bans Tehran from buying or making uranium because the material is not only a key component for certain reactors, but also for atomic weapons.
Amid warnings by Britain, France, and Germany, Iran has been raising the nuclear stakes as it wants the new U.S. administration to return as a party to the agreement, which would involve the lifting of U.S. sanctions.
The IAEA informed its member states on Wednesday that an Iranian laboratory made a few grams of metal from natural uranium on Feb. 6, rather than from enriched uranium that is needed for nuclear warheads.
However, Iran is already enriching uranium to a level of 20 per cent in order to turn it into metal for the research reactor.
Britain, France, and Germany had urged Iran on Feb. 6 to stop this enrichment and “to refrain from any further escalatory steps which would further reduce the space for effective diplomacy.”
The European powers, along with Russia and China, have been trying to salvage the nuclear deal since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned it and revived sanctions against Iran in 2018.
Tehran has reacted by breaching a series of key provisions.
Biden wants Iran to reverse these steps before returning to the deal. (dpa/NAN)
