Iranian officials have told the Wall Street Journal that it will cooperate to give more access to monitors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after last year banning one third of the agency's team.
According to reporter Laurence Norman, the measures are being put in place “to ensure Tehran’s increased 60% production doesn’t lead to diverted fissile material or a sudden push to weapons grade” uranium.
Norman says that among the measures, there will be “more frequent IAEA inspections of Fordow and a few more inspectors”.
It is a turnaround for Tehran which last year banned around one third of the IAEA’s inspectors, accusing them of being politically motivated. However, with the incoming Trump administration, which imposed crippling sanctions during its first term, almost bankrupting Iran, the policy may well be to appease the IAEA to soften the blow of what Trump has promised will be a “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.
“The inspections to Fordow won’t however be daily,” Norman added, expecting an updated IAEA report “soonish”.
Last week, the IAEA’s chief, Rafael Grossi, said: ”Today the agency is announcing that (Iran's) production \[uranium\] capacity is increasing dramatically of the 60% inventory."
In an interview with Reuters in Bahrain, he said that Iran had been producing uranium enriched to up to 60% at a rate of approximately 5-7 kilograms per month, adding that the figure is now expected to increase significantly, "seven, eight times more, maybe even more."
Norman said that the latest move by Tehran “gives Iran an easy leverage item next time they face a censure”.
Writing on X, he said: “They can threaten to withdrew additional oversight. But it’s worth noting that would be a comp safeguards breach. Not a JCPOA breach. So that would be a more serious issue. They are trying to develop nuclear weapon in secret.”
Also last week, a US intelligence report from November revealed that Iran could rapidly build a nuclear weapon should it decide to do so.
”The Intelligence Community continues to assess that as of 26 September 2024, Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. Tehran has, however, undertaken activities that better position it to produce one, if it so chooses," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report said.
"Iran has continued to increase its stockpiles of 20-percent and 60-percent enriched uranium, manufacture and operate an increasing number of advanced centrifuges, and publicly discuss the utility of nuclear weapons," the report added.