Iran has begun enriching uranium to 60% at its underground nuclear plant in Fordow, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Tehran sent a letter to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency informing the nuclear watchdog of the decision, according to the report.
The move is a “strong response” to the adoption by the IAEA’s board of governors on Thursday of a solution calling on Iran to cooperate with the agency’s investigation into uranium lines discovered at 3 undeclared sites, according to the report, bringing up Iranian state media.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed the solution as “politically motivated,” according to Reuters.
As of Oct. 22, Iran had stockpiled 62. 3 kilograms (137. 3 pounds) of enriched uranium-60, one point at a short technical point of production 90, or weapons-grade fissile material.
Because of Tehran’s restrictions on U. N. inspectors last year and the regime’s withdrawal in June of the agency’s tracking and surveillance apparatus from nuclear sites, the IAEA said in its latest quarterly report that it may not have the exact length of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile. .
Also in June, Reuters reported that Tehran was preparing to use complex IR-6 centrifuges at the Fordow site.
The head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, said Monday that Iran will soon begin enriching at least a “symbolic” amount of 90% uranium, adding that it is unlikely to rush to the bomb.
Haliva warned that Tehran had made “significant progress” in its nuclear program and that the network would soon face its “biggest test” to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a bomb.
Haliva’s comments came a day after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi arrived in the U. S. The U. S. is scheduled for a five-day meeting on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and regional expansionism.
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