Iran’s top nuclear official Mohammad Eslami said Wednesday there was “nothing new” in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report which said Iran had recently accelerated production of highly enriched uranium to 60 percent purity.
Eslami criticized what he called a “media frenzy”.
Comments from a White House National Security Council spokesperson came late on Tuesday in response to a report issued by the IAEA that warned that Tehran has accelerated production of high-grade material.
“Iran’s nuclear escalation is all the more concerning at a time when Iran-backed proxies continue their dangerous and destabilizing activities in the region, including the recent deadly drone attack and other attempted attacks in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea,” the US spokesperson said.
Eslami said the latest IAEA report “sought to distract public attention” from the war in Gaza.
The IAEA report said Iran “increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023.”
Iran had increased its output of 60 percent enriched uranium to a rate of about nine a month since the end of November, the UN watchdog said. That is up from about three kilograms a month since June, and a return to the nine kilograms a month it was producing during the first half of 2023.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi informed the organization's member states on Tuesday, a spokesman in Vienna said.
Iran had communicated its increased production plans at the end of November for its facilities in Natanz and Fordow.
IAEA inspectors then verified the production during visits on December 19 and 25, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
