Germany, Britain and France said they were “extremely concerned” about Iran's acceleration in its capacity for enrichment of uranium, urging Iran to halt and reverse these steps.
Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters on Friday that Iran was accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, approaching the level of about 90% that is weapons-grade.
Germany, Britain and France, known informally as the E3, said in a joint statement they condemned Iran's latest steps to significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60% at the underground Fordow facility, as stated in the Agency’s reports.
“We are also extremely concerned to learn that Iran has increased the number of centrifuges in use and started preparations to install additional enrichment infrastructure, further increasing Iran’s enrichment capacity,” they said.
Iran’s actions have further hollowed out the 2015 nuclear deal and will increase Iran’s high enriched uranium stockpile which already has "no credible civilian justification,” they added.
“We strongly urge Iran to reverse these steps, and to immediately halt its nuclear escalation,” the three countries said.
Last month, European and Iranian officials made little progress in meetings on whether they could engage in serious talks, including over Iran's disputed nuclear program, before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
On Saturday, a Western diplomatic source said Iran's acceleration in its enrichment of uranium to close to bomb grade is “extremely serious,” has no civilian justification and contradicts Tehran's assertions on wanting serious nuclear negotiations.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.
Its foreign ministry said on Saturday that Tehran's nuclear program is under continuous supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
The Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the acceleration of enrichment was "in contradiction with Iran's declarations on its willingness to return to credible negotiations".
“These measures have no credible civilian justification and could, on the contrary, directly fuel a military nuclear program if Iran were to take the decision,” the source said.
On the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain's capital, Grossi said that Iran is “dramatically” increasing the amount of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity.
He added that it was set to rise to “seven, eight times more, maybe, or even more” than the previous rate of 5-7 kg a month.
In the report to member states, which was seen by Reuters, the IAEA said Iran had increased the enrichment rate of the material being fed into two interconnected cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at its Fordow plant.
The plant had already been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity with material enriched to up to 5% purity. The material being fed in now has been enriched to up to 20% purity, accelerating the process of reaching 60%.
That change means Iran will "significantly" increase the amount of uranium it enriches to 60% purity, reaching more than 34 kg a month at Fordow alone, the report said.
Iran is also enriching uranium to up to 60% at another site, Natanz.
The report said Iran must as a matter of urgency facilitate tougher safeguards measures, such as inspections, to ensure Fordow is not being “misused to produce uranium of an enrichment level higher than that declared by Iran, and that there is no diversion of declared nuclear material.”
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Following the agency’s quarterly report last August, David Albright, founder and President of the non-profit Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said that Iran has enough enriched uranium to produce 15 nuclear bombs in five months.
Last month, the IAEA said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kg of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kg since the last report in August.
Dangerous and Reckless
Tehran was angered by a resolution last month put forward by Britain, Germany and France, known as the E3, and the United States that faulted Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.
The resolution criticized the way Iran cooperates with the agency.
Experts say Iran's acceleration at Fordow was “a dangerous and reckless escalation that risks derailing the prospects for negotiations with the United States.”
After pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Trump pursued a “maximum pressure” policy that sought to force Iran to accept an agreement that curbs its regional activities and ballistic missile program.
He is staffing his planned administration with hawks on Iran.
Last month, Grossi said, “We do not have any diplomatic process ongoing which could lead to a de-escalation, or a more stable equation when it comes to Iran. This is regrettable.”
The nuclear deal lifted sanctions against Iran in return for restrictions on Iran's atomic activities. Since Trump left the deal, Iran has abandoned those restrictions.
Iran fears that European countries will reactivate the “trigger or snapback mechanism” which will push Tehran to suspend its basic safeguards commitment under the agreement.
