U.N. official warning Iran stockpile at high

Unrest, aid for Russia block talks with West

Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build several nuclear weapons if it chooses, the U.N.’S top nuclear official is warning. But diplomatic efforts aimed at again limiting its atomic program seem more unlikely than ever before as Tehran arms Russia in its war on Ukraine and as unrest shakes the Islamic Republic.

The warning from Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in response to questions from European lawmakers last week, shows how high the stakes have become over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has vowed to destroy U.S. ally Israel, which makes a nuclear-armed Iran an even greater international security threat.

Even at the height of previous tensions between the West and Iran under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran never enriched uranium as high as it does now.

For months, nonproliferation experts have suggested Iran had enough uranium enriched up to 60 percent to build at least one nuclear weapon, though Tehran has insisted its program is for peaceful purposes.

While offering a caveat on Tuesday that “we need to be extremely careful” in describing Iran’s program, Grossi acknowledged just how large Tehran’s high-enriched uranium stockpile had grown.

“One thing is true: They have amassed enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons, not one at this point,” Grossi said.

Talks between Iran and the West ended in August with a “final text” of a road map on restoring the 2015 deal that Iran until today hasn’t accepted.

Iran’s mission to the U.N., responding to questions about Grossi’s remarks, insisted on Thursday that Tehran “is prepared to stick to its commitments within the framework of the (deal) provided the other parties do the same.”

“The Iranian nuclear program has never been about making nuclear weapons, and enriching has nothing to do with deviating from it,” the mission said, despite Iran accelerating its enrichment after the deal’s collapse.

Iranian state television separately quoted Mohammad Eslami, the head of the country’s civilian nuclear program, as saying Tehran would welcome a visit by Grossi to the country.

As Iran’s rial currency plunges to historic lows against the dollar amid its crises, Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian have made unsupported claims about American officials agreeing to their demands or frozen money abroad being released.

At the State Department, the denials about Iran’s claims have grown more and more pointed.

“We’ve heard a number of statements from the Iranian foreign minister that are dubious if not outright lies,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a response to a question.

Price and others in President Joe Biden’s administration say any talks with Iran remain off the table as Tehran cracks down on the monthslong protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman detained in September by the country’s morality police.

Another part of the Americans’ exasperation — and increasingly of the Europeans as well — comes from Iran arming Russia with the bomb-carrying drones that have targeted power plants and civilian targets across Ukraine.

For now, Grossi said there was “almost no diplomatic activity” over trying to restore the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement he now describes as “an empty shell.”

But he still urged more diplomacy as Tehran still would need to design and test any possible nuclear weapon.

“We shouldn’t give up,” he said.