UN dismisses Iranian explanations for secret store of uranium

The UN’s nuclear watchdog is dismissing Iran’s explanation for the presence of nuclear material at an undeclared site in the country.

Although the Iranian authorities provided some information about the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency told Tehran that it did not consider Iran’s response to be “technically credible”.

“A full and prompt explanation from Iran regarding the presence of uranium particles of anthropogenic origin … at a location in Iran not declared to the agency is needed,” the IAEA said.

Although it did not identify the site in question, diplomatic sources said it is in the Turquzabad district of Tehran.

Israel previously claimed that the location was a hub of secret atomic activity.

A source told AFP that there was no indication the plant had been used for processing uranium but that material could have been stored there as recently as the end of 2018.

Observers are waiting to see whether Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election will lead to the easing of tension between Tehran and western powers.

The Iranian ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharib Abadi, said that “any hasty comments should be avoided”.

“Interactions are ongoing with a view to finalise the resolution of the matter,” he said.

The agency’s report did not provide any new information about two separate locations from which the IAEA took samples in September and where undeclared nuclear activity may have taken place in the early 2000s. Analysis of those samples is ongoing.

But it confirmed that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now more than 12 times the limit set in a 2015 deal with world powers, even if the rate at which the hoard is expanding has slowed since the IAEA’s last report.

The 2015 accord has progressively unravelled since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and went on to reintroduce economic sanctions on Tehran.

In retaliation, from May last year Iran began to break the limits on its nuclear activity laid down in the deal.

As well as breaching limits on the stockpile and enrichment level of uranium laid down in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran is using more advanced centrifuges than those permitted under the deal.

Wednesday’s report confirmed that, in line with previous statements made by Iranian officials, centrifuges were installed underground at the Natanz nuclear plant.

This took place after another part of the Natanz site was damaged in July in an explosion Iran blamed on sabotage.

The three European countries who are still party to the 2015 deal – France, the UK and Germany – are scrambling to keep the accord intact.

The election of Mr Biden as the next US president is generating some hope that the deal could be revived. Mr Biden has offered Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy”.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country would take any opportunity to “lift the pressure of sanctions from the shoulders of our people”. But obstacles to improving relations between Iran and the West remain.

Iran said the US must lift the sanctions imposed on it by Mr Trump’s administration before it will resume compliance with the nuclear deal’s limits.

The “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran launched by Mr Trump intensified Tehran’s distrust of the US. Tension between the two countries has twice brought them to the brink of war since the middle of last year.

Mr Biden will have a narrow window of opportunity between his inauguration as US leader on January 20 and an Iranian presidential election set for June 18 in which reformists and moderates allied to Mr Rouhani may face a tough challenge from conservatives.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will start a tour of Washington’s allies in the Middle East, including several of Iran’s neighbours, during which he is expected to discuss increasing pressure on Tehran during the remaining two months of the Trump administration.