Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned this week that Iran’s continued lack of transparency is very alarming amid the revelation of at least one more undisclosed nuclear site.
Director-General of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, issued another warning this week regarding Iran’s failure to provide information on multiple undisclosed locations where nuclear activity has been uncovered. The warning comes after talks in Vienna just days ago resulted in a failure to reconcile the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, due to Iran’s lack of transparency.
Though Iran claims it has been in cooperation with the IAEA, traces of uranium have been found in at least three undisclosed locations in recent weeks, and the Republic has offered no thorough explanation. Despite Iran’s claims that it has never pursued a nuclear weapon, the IAEA revealed that Iran had clearly engaged in “a range of activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device” years before the nuclear deal began.
Grossi, as he has stated in other instances, warned that Iran’s ongoing suspicious activity makes it very difficult to trust that the Islamic Republic only has good intentions with its nuclear program, stating that this recurring lack of honesty “seriously affects the ability of the agency to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”
He continued, “After many months, Iran has not provided the necessary explanation for the presence of the nuclear material particles at any of the three locations,” and said, “I am deeply concerned that nuclear material has been present at the three undeclared locations in Iran and that the current locations of this nuclear material are not known by the agency. Nor has Iran answered the questions with regard to the other undeclared location or clarified the current location of natural uranium in the form of a metal disc.”
Following the US withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018, Iran began publicly violating numerous terms included in the deal, namely, the limit of uranium enrichment. The deal required that Iran maintain a level of uranium enrichment no higher than 3.67%. Currently, the Republic is enriching it at 60%.
