The Director of the International Atomic Agency visits Iran on Friday, and Washington warns: We will not allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported today, Wednesday, that the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Iran on Friday to attend high-level meetings.

The visit comes amid discussions with Tehran about the origin of enriched uranium particles with a purity of up to 83.7% at the Fordow facility, which is very close to the degree of purity required to make nuclear weapons, according to a report issued by the agency.

The report stated that the stockpile increased on February 12 to 3,760.8 kilograms, compared to 3,673.7 kilograms in October 2022, exceeding 18 times the permissible ceiling according to the 2015 nuclear agreement.

For his part, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, today, Wednesday, downplayed the importance of what the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

"A slight change was detected in one of the tests, but we couldn't even see it with a microscope," Islami added in Tehran.

He explained that the level of enrichment reached 60%, according to official media.

"unintentional changes"

In a letter issued on February 20, Iran informed the agency of the possibility of "unintended changes in enrichment levels" last November.

In a parallel context, the US delegate to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said that Iran has increased uranium enrichment since Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

The US representative to the United Nations reaffirmed that the US administration will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

The US State Department also said that diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and all options are on the table.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian called on Washington to return to the nuclear agreement and adopt a constructive approach instead of adopting deceptive behavior, he said.

"We were the parties most committed to the negotiations of the nuclear agreement, and the party that withdrew was Washington," Abdullahian said, explaining that "the Americans are still unable to take a courageous decision to return to the nuclear agreement."

Axios reported, citing officials, that the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and National Security Adviser will visit Washington for talks focused on Iran.