The Atomic Energy Agency has started talks with Iran after finding enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday that started talks with Iran following a news report that the country was stepping up nuclear enrichment.

Bloomberg News reported that the inspectors of international atomic energy agency (IAEA) in Iran found enriched uranium at 84% purity last week.

The latest news is that Iran could enrich itself by up to 60%, down from the 90% required to produce a weapon.

The report came out at a time when Negotiations to revive an international nuclear deal with Iran have stalled.

“The IAEA is aware of recent press reports on Iran’s level of nuclear enrichment”wrote the entity on Twitter.

He added that is “discussing with Iran the issue recent agency verification activities and report to the IAEA Board of Governors.

Iran began ramping up its nuclear activities in 2019, a year after the United States, under President Donald Trump, withdrew from the international accord and reimposed sanctions.

The 2015 deal promised Iran to lift sanctions in exchange for curtailing its nuclear program.

World powers resumed talks to revive the nuclear deal in 2021, but stalled last year.

According Bloomberg“inspectors must determine whether Iran intentionally produced the material or whether the concentration was an unintentional accumulation.”

The news agency reported that international supervisors detected last week, according to diplomatic sources, quantities of uranium enriched to levels just below those needed to make a functional nuclear weapon.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, the United Nations nuclear agency) is now trying to determine how the Iranian regime managed to accumulate enriched uranium at 84% puritythe highest level found by inspectors nationwide to date, and a concentration just 6% below what is needed for a nuclear weapon.

The Islamic Republic had previously informed the Agency that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a purity level of 60%.

Now inspectors are focused on determining whether this purity was achieved intentionally or is the product of a buildup in the network of pipes that connect the hundreds of centrifuges used to separate the isotopes.

This is the second time this month that monitors have detected suspicious enrichment-related activity, according to what was pointed out by these sources.

In January, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran “has amassed enough nuclear material for several atomic weapons.”

Iran said in December its uranium enrichment capacity had reached record levels, although it insisted it had no plans to build an atomic bomb.

(With information from AFP)

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