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Iran Stonewalls Inspectors as Uranium Stockpile Jumps Three-Fold

Iran’s Nuclear Stockpile Jumps as Suspicion Grows Over Uranium

(Bloomberg) --

Iranian officials have obstructed efforts to clarify past nuclear activities, the United Nations atomic watchdog said in a finding that threatens to further hinder international efforts to salvage what’s left of the nation’s 2015 deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency told diplomats on Tuesday that Iran won’t let inspectors visit two locations where they suspect nuclear-related activities took place some 15 years ago. Their report reopens an inquiry into the Islamic Republic’s past activities that Tehran’s government thought it had settled by agreeing to the nuclear pact with world powers.

“The agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran that had not been declared by Iran,” the IAEA said in a three-page report circulated to diplomats. The country “has not provided access” or “engaged in substantive discussions” with inspectors, it said.

A second IAEA report confirmed that Iran continued violating the accord by expanding its nuclear stockpile for an eighth consecutive month.

Iran Stonewalls Inspectors as Uranium Stockpile Jumps Three-Fold

Iran’s store of low-enriched uranium increased almost three-fold to 1,020.9 kilograms (2,251 pounds) over the quarter ending Feb. 19, according to the restricted International Atomic Energy Agency report seen by Bloomberg. That’s more than the amount of the heavy metal needed to create a single nuclear bomb if Iran chose to enrich the material to weapons grade.

European Priority

A suggestion that Iran could be providing incomplete information has potentially serious consequences. The entire international apparatus of rules that the IAEA enforces is based on verifying the correctness and completeness of nations’ declared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities.

The IAEA’s findings could make it more difficult for the remaining parties to the deal -- China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. -- to resuscitate the landmark agreement. They pledged support last week for what they continue to describe as one of the world’s “key non-proliferation projects.”

The beleaguered pact jettisoned by U.S. President Donald Trump had imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. Tehran says it will only return to compliance once European countries ensure it receives economic benefits, including the export of oil.

“The idea that Iran is going to roll back its nuclear activities without getting anything in return has long passed,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The priority now for European parties is to contain Iran’s nuclear activities and preserve a negotiation track that can limit the scope of damage.”

Trump’s abandonment of the deal triggered a deepening standoff between the U.S. and Iran, which took the two foes to the brink of military conflict.

Agency inspectors said they asked Iran for access to two unspecified locations where nuclear material may have been stored, according to the first report. Monitors used archival satellite images to independently corroborate their suspicions, according to a senior diplomat familiar with the probe. Renewed IAEA suspicion arose following Israeli publication of documents that proclaim Iran’s decades-old work was more extensive than previously known.

Iran informed the agency in a Jan. 28 letter that it “will not recognize any allegation on past activities and does not consider itself obliged to respond,” the IAEA said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Mark Williams

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