Nuclear Chief: Iran Can Enrich Uranium ‘At Any Rate’

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
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Nuclear Chief: Iran Can Enrich Uranium ‘At Any Rate’

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) head Mohammad Eslami (Reuters)

Iran can enrich uranium whenever it wants, and at any rate, announced head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami.

In an interview with Iranian television, Eslami stated that the US wanted to stop Iran's nuclear technology but failed.

Asked about the failed negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, Eslami said that it was proved that the US reasons for not agreeing were mere excuses and that Washington's primary goal was to prevent Iran's progress.

Asked about reaching 60 percent of enriched uranium, the official said this step had a noticeable impact, and it was only normal to affect the negotiations.

He added that the US officials have an impression that Iran is a nuclear state and they cannot get rid of that quickly. More importantly, they realized these local abilities could not be eliminated.

Eslami pointed out that Iran recently carried out an unprecedented amount of enrichment, proving to all, whether friends or enemies, that the Iranian ability is real and undeniable.

Negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement between Iran and the major powers stalled in Vienna more than a year ago. Last September, the EU's attempt to renew the talks failed.

Tehran enriched uranium to 20 percent at the Natanz plant days after US President Joe Biden assumed his position in January 2021 and raised the enrichment rate to 60 percent at the facility in April.

In January 2022, Tehran began enriching uranium by 20 percent at the Fordow facility, and in June, it raised the enrichment to a purity of 60 percent.

In February, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said Iran's estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached more than 18 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.



7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar on Saturday killed five people, as Moscow’s troops pushed ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The attack struck a high-rise building and a private home, said regional Gov. Vadym Filaskhin, who said the victims were men aged 24 to 38. He urged the last remaining residents to leave the front-line town, which had a pre-war population of 12,000.
“Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years,” Filaskhin wrote on social media. “Do not become a Russian target — evacuate.” A further two people were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. One victim was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, while a second woman died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it captured the town of Pivnichne, also in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is partly an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.
Elsewhere, the number of wounded following a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday continued to rise.
Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl, when glide bombs struck five locations across the city, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Writing on social media Saturday, he said that the number of injured had risen from 47 to 96.
Syniehubov also confirmed that the 12-story apartment block that was hit by one bomb strike, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor, would be partly demolished.
Ukrainian officials have previously pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv had presented Washington with a list of potential long-range targets within Russia for its approval. “I hope we were heard,” he said.
He also denied speculation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s decision to dismiss the commander of the country’s air force Friday was directly linked to the destruction of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners four days earlier.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website minutes before an address which saw Zelenskyy stress the need to “take care of all our soldiers.”
“This is two separate issues,” said Umerov. “At this stage, I would not connect them.”
The number of injured also continued to rise in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where five people were killed Friday by Ukrainian shelling, said Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said Sunday that 46 people had been injured, of whom 37 were in the hospital, including seven children. Writing on social media, Gladkov also said that two others had been injured in Ukrainian shelling across the region.