Planned discussions between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve the current impasse have been suspended due to the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi, according to a report from the UN body . At the same time, Iran’s nuclear program has continued to gain momentum in recent months.
“The current situation is absolutely not satisfactory”
The day after the leader’s death on May 19 in a helicopter crash, “Iran said that due to ‘special circumstances’ it was not appropriate to continue discussions” and that a new date would be set later, writes the document consulted Monday by AFP. Returning from a trip to Iran at the beginning of May to renew seriously strained ties, the Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi asked for “concrete results as quickly as possible”.
“The current situation is absolutely not satisfactory. We are almost at an impasse (…) and this must change”, he declared, hoping for progress by the Governing Council scheduled for next week in Vienna, in Austria. But in the meantime, the death of Ebrahim Raïssi and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, complicated the situation. In this report, the head of the IAEA “reaffirms to the new Iranian government its call and its desire to continue high-level dialogue and technical exchanges.”
Uranium stockpiles stood at more than 30 times the limit
In a second document, the IAEA takes stock of Iran’s nuclear escalation. Stocks of enriched uranium amounted to 6,201.3 kg on May 11 (compared to 5,525.5 kg in February), more than 30 times the limit authorized by the 2015 international agreement, even if Tehran denies wanting to acquire the bomb. It was supposed to regulate Tehran’s atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions, under the supervision of the UN body responsible for verifying the peaceful nature of the Iranian program.
But Iran gradually freed itself from the commitments made within the framework of this pact, known by the acronym JCPOA, in reaction to the withdrawal of the United States decided in 2018 by the then president, Donald Trump. Discussions in Vienna to revive it failed in the summer of 2022. In addition to the accumulation of stocks, Tehran has largely exceeded the ceiling set at 3.67% – equivalent to what is used in nuclear power plants for the production of electricity: it has 751.3 kg of uranium enriched to 20% (compared to 712.2 kg three months previously).
In the case of the 60% threshold, close to the 90% necessary to develop an atomic weapon, Tehran increased its stock to 142.1 kg (compared to 121.5 kilos previously), or enough material to make three bombs, after the IAEA definition.