A new report released Friday by the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency reveals that Iran has significantly increased its uranium enrichment.
Channel 10 News reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed concerns in its latest report over Iran’s nuclear intentions.
“There is serious concern that Iran's nuclear program has a dimension directed toward developing nuclear weapons,” Channel 10 quoted the report as having said. The IAEA also said in its report that it found that Iran's uranium enrichment process has only gained momentum in the last few months.
The report also repeated the IAEA’s announcement earlier this week that its team’s visit in the Islamic Republic had failed. The reason for the failure, according to the report, is because the team was unable to obtain an Iranian response regarding the accusations that Tehran’s nuclear program has directed most of its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and is not for peaceful purposes as the Islamic Republic had maintained.
The IAEA added that Iran has significantly expanded its operations at its nuclear facility near the city of Natanz and has also increased the work at the underground facility in Fordo. Data presented in the report said that close to 170 centrifuges are currently operating in Natanz and close to 700 centrifuges are operating in Fordo.
The IAEA team members who visited Tehran this week were denied access to a key military site, and the IAEA later said they were unable “to reach an agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear program.”
The Washingon-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said this week it had new indications of hidden weapons work by Iran.
ISIS said that a cache of telexes to Western high-tech companies from the Physics Research Center in Tehran shows that from about 1990 to 1993, the center sought to purchase equipment and materials that could have been used in weapons research and development.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)