Atomic Energy Agency: Iran Close to Nuclear Bomb

8th December 2024

1 minute read

Atomic Energy Agency: Iran Close to Nuclear Bomb

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in a confidential document on Friday that Iran is accelerating its uranium enrichment at a pace close to that required to produce a nuclear bomb.

The report, submitted by the IAEA to its member states and reviewed by them, stated that the United Nations agency “confirmed on Thursday that Iran began injecting uranium hexafluoride gas enriched to 20% instead of the previous 5% into two connected chains of IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow, which enrich uranium up to 60%, close to the 90% required to produce weapons.”

The report indicates that this means Iran’s rate of enrichment to 60% will significantly increase, with a monthly production rate exceeding 34 kilograms at Fordow alone.

Last month, a quarterly report from the agency had revealed that Iran’s total production at this level at two sites, including Fordow, was about six kilograms per month.

Last month, Kamal Kharrazi, advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, stated on Friday that Tehran would have no difficulty in changing its nuclear doctrine in the event of an existential threat.

Kharrazi added that it would also be possible to “change Iran’s nuclear doctrine if the nation faces an existential threat,” stating, “We now have the technical capabilities to produce nuclear weapons, and only the fatwa of the revolution’s leader prevents it.”

This fatwa, prohibiting the development and use of nuclear weapons, was issued by Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2003. Two years later, the Iranian government officially declared it in a statement during an IAEA meeting in Vienna.

At the beginning of October, Iranian lawmakers called for reconsidering the country’s peaceful nuclear doctrine in response to Israeli threats against Tehran.