The UN atomic watchdog has flagged a new breach by Iran of the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.
In a new report which was seen by Reuters on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) avoids saying Iran has breached the deal. At the same time, it generally only issues such ad hoc reports to member states in the event of a breach.
Two diplomats told Reuters what the report described amounted to a fresh breach.
The breach has to do with what counts officially towards Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
After the deal was reached in 2015 the parties to it defined what should count towards the stockpile, and excluded items such as scrap fuel plates with uranium enriched to near 20% fissile purity, which were deemed “unrecoverable.”
Friday’s report, however, said Iran had recovered some of that material.
“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.
“A uranyl nitrate solution was extracted and converted into ammonium uranyl carbonate,” the report added.
Iran has consistently scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from it in 2018.
Last month, the IAEA said Iran has started enriching uranium at its underground Natanz plant with a second type of advanced centrifuge, the IR-4.
The IAEA previously reported that Iran had added 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 20% to its stockpile as of February 16.
Iran also increased its total enriched uranium stockpile to 2,967.8 kilograms (6,542.9 pounds), up from 2,442.9 kilograms (5,385.7 pounds) reported on November 2, the IAEA said.
The latest report follows talks in Vienna this week aimed at bringing the United States back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The talks ended on Friday without any immediate signs of progress.
While US President Joe Biden has expressed a desire to return to the 2015 deal, he has stressed that Iran must resume compliance with it before any negotiations on a US return to the agreement.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price played down expectations for talks on how Washington and Tehran might resume compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.