The United States and France confirmed today, Thursday, that Iran has made unprecedented progress in its nuclear program, after the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations reported that it had found particles of uranium enriched by more than 80%.

US Assistant Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said that Iran has made significant progress in its nuclear program since the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran.

He added in his testimony before Congress that when the previous US administration withdrew from the nuclear agreement, Iran could produce materials for one nuclear bomb within 12 months, but now it is able to do so within 12 days, as he put it.

For her part, spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Anne-Claire Legendre, told reporters that the developments in the Iranian nuclear program indicate a very disturbing path that Iran is following, "and there is no justification for it. It is an unprecedented and very dangerous development."

Legendre added, "The report also indicates that there is no possibility for the International Atomic Energy Agency to consolidate its continued access to information on Iran's nuclear program."


unintended accumulation

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had found uranium particles enriched to 83.7% in Iran, just under the 90% needed to produce an atomic bomb, without being able to determine if this percentage was reached by mistake or by accident. meaning.

The discovery of the particles came after IAEA inspectors collected samples from the Fordow plant last January, according to a report by the UN.

But Tehran, which denies its intention to acquire nuclear weapons, spoke of "unintended accumulation" due to technical difficulties in centrifuges used in enrichment, in a letter to the agency.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that his country was and still is most committed to the nuclear agreement, and accused the United States of being unable to take a courageous decision to return to the agreement.

The Iranian minister added, in an interview with CNN, that under the current Iranian government, "we decided to continue the dialogue in order to return to the agreement and we had very long discussions in Vienna."


European American variation

On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal quoted diplomatic sources as saying that there is a US-European disagreement over the nature of the response to Iran's enrichment of uranium at a rate that allows for the production of nuclear weapons.

The newspaper said that US President Joe Biden's administration is reluctant to publicly blame Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting next week, while Britain, France and Germany prefer to formally blame Tehran at the meeting.

The newspaper added that the Europeans want to pass a decision on Iran's nuclear activities during the meeting, but the sources of the "Wall Street Journal" were not likely to push the European countries in the direction of issuing a decision at the IAEA meeting without Washington's support.

It is expected that the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Tehran on Saturday, where he will meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to "relaunch the dialogue."