IAEA Says Iran Blocks Inspectors, Cannot Verify Enriched Uranium Stockpile

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has been unable to inspect nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the war last June, and it cannot provide information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.

“A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report circulated among member states and reviewed by the Associated Press states that the UN nuclear watchdog lacks updated information on Iran's enriched uranium stockpile”

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The IAEA also said it was “unable to discharge its safeguards responsibilities” under the Safeguards Agreement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and warned that it was “indispensable and urgent” for Tehran to implement its obligations.

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Since the last report in February, IAEA inspectors have visited only the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was visited on June 1-3.

The reactor currently running at Bushehr uses uranium from Russia enriched to 4.5 per cent, a low level needed for power generation in such plants.

The IAEA said Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kg of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity, which it described as a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi warned in a recent AP interview that Iran’s 440.9 kg stockpile enriched up to 60 per cent purity could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs if it decided to weaponise its programme.

Grossi also said that does not mean Iran has such a weapon, while the IAEA reported it was unable to confirm whether Iran had suspended all enrichment-related activities.

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In a confidential report circulated among member states and reviewed by the Associated Press, the IAEA said it “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran or whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities.”

France 24, citing AFP, said the IAEA reaffirmed in a confidential report seen by AFP that a lack of access to Iran’s nuclear material posed a “proliferation concern” and called on Tehran to act “constructively.”

The IAEA inspection gap is unfolding as tensions have flared in the Middle East, with Iranian drones heavily damaging a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding dozens of others.

The IAEA-linked reporting also described the incident as part of back-and-forth attacks by Iran and the U.S. that test a fragile ceasefire, while the IAEA said it was “indispensable and urgent” for Tehran to implement its obligations under the NPT.

The IAEA said highly enriched nuclear material should normally be verified every month, but it reported that monitoring has been disrupted by the inability to access relevant sites.

The IAEA said it gives “full support to the negotiations underway aimed at finding a mutually acceptable solution to issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme, and his readiness … to support an eventual agreement.”

France 24 said the report was to be discussed at an IAEA board of governors’ meeting next week, with the agency warning that its lack of access to verify the previously declared highly enriched uranium and low enriched uranium for nearly a year was “a matter of proliferation concern.”