Tehran nearly triples stockpile of enriched uranium: UN

vienna — Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium over the last three months in violation of its deal with world powers and is refusing to answer questions about three possible undeclared nuclear sites, the UN nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency made the statement in a confidential report distributed to member countries that was seen by The Associated Press. The agency said of February 19, Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile amounted to 1,020.9 kilograms, compared to 372.3 kilograms noted in its last report on November 3, 2019.

The nuclear deal that Iran signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms.

The deal promised Iran economic incentives in return for the curbs on its nuclear programme, but since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal unilaterally in 2018, however, Iran has been slowly violating the deal’s restrictions.

With the violations, Tehran has said it hopes to put pressure on the other nations involved to increase economic incentives to make up for hard-hitting sanctions imposed by Washington after the American withdrawal.

In a second report issued on Tuesday, the IAEA said it had identified three locations in Iran where the country possibly stored undeclared nuclear material or undertook nuclear-related activities without declaring it to international observers. It said it had sent questions to Iran in three separate letters but received no answers. —