TEHRAN: Iran confirmed on Saturday that it has allowed watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to increase the number of inspections it carries out into Tehran’s nuclear programme, state media reported.

“We have increased capacity — it is natural that the number of inspections should also increase,” the official IRNA news agency quoted the country’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami as saying.

“When we carry out nuclear activities, and where we deal with nuclear materials, changing the scale will naturally change the monitoring level,” he added.

According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) earlier this week, Iran has agreed to tougher monitoring by the agency at its Fordow site after it greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade there. Eslami’s comments came after an IAEA report, seen by the agency on Friday, that Iran had agreed to increased monitoring.

“Iran agreed to the agency’s request to increase the frequency and intensity of the implementation of safeguards measures at Fordo enrichment plant” south of Tehran, the IAEA report said.

Last week the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had revamped Fordo so it could “significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent”, close to the 90pc needed to make a nuclear weapon.

“We have not created and will not create any obstacles for the agency’s inspections and access, Atomic Energy Organisation head Eslami was quoted as saying by Iranian media. “We operate within the framework of safeguards, and the agency also acts according to regulationsno more, no less, he added. Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and denies it is seeking an atomic weapons capability.

“The IAEA has always had access to monitor within the framework of the safeguard agreement and the NPT, and we have not created any obstacles for it and we will not do so,” Eslami said. The Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT requires member states to declare and maintain their nuclear materials under IAEA supervision.

‘New and advanced’ centrifuges

Last month, Iran announced it would launch “new and advanced” centrifuges in response to an IAEA board resolution censuring Tehran for what it called a lack of cooperation with the agency. Iran informed the IAEA that it planned to install more than 6,000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said, reported by Al Jazeera news The report came as Iran prepared to hold talks with Britain, France and Germany in Geneva last month over its nuclear programme. By also bringing more centrifuges already in place online, the confidential report outlined what Iran meant following a censure by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed in the same month at the request of Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday “condemned” Tehran’s latest steps to expand its nuclear programme, “strongly urging” it to reverse them. In a letter to the UN Security Council, the three European powers raised the possibility of restoring all UN sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing its nuclear programme.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2024