By Chukwuemeka Chukwueke
The U.N. atomic agency said Wednesday that Iran has started to produce uranium metal, marking the latest breach of the 2015 nuclear agreement by Tehran.
Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, verified on Feb. 8 that Iran had produced a small amount of uranium metal at a nuclear plant in Isfahan, the agency’s spokesman, Fredrik Dahl, said in an email. In a report to member states, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi informed the agency’s member states about the development.
The material can be used to build the core of a nuclear weapon. The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers expressly forbids producing uranium metal or researching and developing uranium metallurgy for 15 years.
The production of uranium metal further complicates any potential diplomacy between Tehran and the new administration in Washington when each government has staked out negotiating positions that put the onus on the other side to take the first conciliatory step.
