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European powers have expressed deep concern over Iran’s plans to produce metallic uranium, warning that Tehran “has no credible civilian use” for the element.
“The production of metallic uranium has potentially serious military implications,” the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement on Saturday.
Iran had signed a 15-year ban on “producing or acquiring plutonium or uranium or their alloys” under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015 with world powers.
“We strongly urge Iran to stop this activity and return to fulfill its JCPOA commitments without further delay if it truly wants to preserve the agreement,” the ministers said.
His call came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran had notified the nuclear watchdog that it was advancing research on metallic uranium production, with the aim of providing advanced fuel for a nuclear reactor. research in Tehran.
In response to the statement by the foreign ministers, Iran’s atomic energy organization urged the IAEA to avoid creating any “misunderstandings”, adding that it had not yet “submitted the design information questionnaire for the uranium metal factory. “to the control body.
This would be done “after the necessary preparations have been made and … within the deadline set by law,” the organization said, referring to a five-month deadline set by the Iranian parliament in December that requires Tehran to prepare factory.
He said he hopes the IAEA does not cause any more “misunderstandings in the future, by refraining from mentioning unnecessary details in its reports.”
The landmark 2015 deal agreed between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany to limit Tehran’s nuclear program has been largely in shambles since Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018 and reimposed. harsh penalties.
The Iranian government has shown its willingness to compromise with the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, who will take office on January 20 and who has expressed his willingness to return to diplomacy with Tehran.
Biden on Saturday named America’s top negotiator for the Obama-era Iran deal, Wendy Sherman, as undersecretary of state. It marks another clear sign that Biden wants to return to the deal under which Iran drastically cut its nuclear program in exchange for promises of sanctions relief.
