The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that it had "verified 3.6 grams of uranium metal" at a plant in the country.
If this is not a surprise - Iran had let it be known in mid-January that it was moving in this direction - the subject is sensitive because uranium metal can be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
DECRYPTION
Iran is relaunching its nuclear program step by step.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency found that the Islamic Republic had started production of a new component for military use.
These 3.6 grams of uranium metal remain, in terms of volume, very sample.
However, this sample was produced locally, in a factory in Isfahan.
This means that now the Iranians have mastered this know-how essential to the manufacture of an atomic bomb.
Which also has little use outside of this function.
Growing militarization
This new violation is part of a trajectory which for several months indicates an increasing militarization of the Iranian nuclear program with the passage of the uranium enrichment rate to 20% and the increase in the stock of fissile material.
If ever it decides to acquire it, the Islamic Republic is therefore in a position to have all the elements necessary for the assembly of an atomic bomb within a year, and of an operational weapon. 'less than two years ago.
Which, at this stage, is not yet a choice fully assumed by the regime.
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The Iranians' stated objective for the moment is to force the United States to return as quickly as possible to the 2015 agreement, which provided for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for abandoning its military nuclear program. .
The problem is that Donald Trump rejected this compromise in 2018 and the Iranians have been under embargo since then.
Their response strategy was therefore to organize a gradual violation of the rules of the agreement, particularly on stocks and enrichment.
Arm wrestling with the United States
Joe Biden, just invested, is ready to resume negotiations but he demands that the Iranians return to their obligations before opening discussions.
While the Iranians are asking him to show his goodwill by first lifting US sanctions.
Until the diplomats of the two countries find an adequate way to resume the dialogue, the two countries are therefore engaged in a standoff.
The risk being that the Iranian slippage, which for the moment remains fairly controlled, finally leaves in a spinning top under the pressure of the radicals of the regime.