Sunday, April 11, 2021

Nuclear watchdog reports fresh violation by Iran amid indirect talks with US

The UN’s nuclear watchdog indicated a fresh violation by Iran of its nuclear deal with world powers, as Iranian representatives met with the deal’s other signatories in Vienna in a bid to rescue the accord.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in a report released Friday indicated that Iran had again violated limits on its stockpile of enriched uranium, the Reuters news agency reported.

The IAEA report does not explicitly say that Iran violated the deal’s terms, but the agency releases such reports when a breach occurs. Diplomatic sources told Reuters that the report indicated that a breach of the deal had occurred.

The 2015 deal placed strict limits on Iran’s uranium stockpile. The IAEA determined on Wednesday that Iran had violated those limits by recovering uranium from items called scrap fuel plates.

“On 7 April 2021, the Agency verified at the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant at Esfahan that Iran had dissolved six unirradiated scrap fuel plates for the TRR [Tehran Research Reactor] containing 0.43 kg of uranium enriched up to 20% U-235,” the report said according to Reuters.

The amount of new enriched uranium is relatively small but threatens to derail talks being held to revive the deal.

Iran met with the deal’s signatories in Vienna this week. The Biden administration engaged in indirect dialogue with Iran for the first time during the talks by communicating with the Iranian delegation through European intermediaries.

The talks broke Friday, with no clear signs of progress, but most representatives involved sounding optimistic about the prospects. READ MORE