US says will turn up pressure on Iran if it doesn’t cooperate with UN nuclear watchdog
State Depratment announcement comes after IAEA says Tehran installed extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at Fordo site and has begun setting up others
The US State Department said Thursday that Washington and its allies were prepared to continue to increase pressure on Iran if Tehran does not cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran has rapidly installed extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its Fordo site and has begun setting up others, a UN nuclear watchdog report said earlier in the day.
The US State Department said the report showed that Iran aimed to continue expanding its nuclear program “in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose.”
“The report issued today by the IAEA makes clear that Iran aims to continue expanding its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “If Iran implements these plans, we will respond accordingly.” No further details were given.
Iran is further expanding its nuclear capacities, the International Atomic Energy Agency said, one week after the agency’s board of governors passed a resolution criticizing Tehran’s lack of cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
The IAEA informed its members that Tehran told it that it was installing more cascades at the enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordo, according to a statement sent to AFP.
A diplomatic source deemed this development as “moderate.”
A cascade is a series of centrifuges, machines used in the process of enriching uranium.
Britain, France and Germany brought forth a motion demanding Iran cooperate better with the watchdog at the IAEA’s 35-nation board last week, the first of its kind since November 2022. China and Russia opposed the measure.
The resolution, which Tehran slammed as “hasty and unwise,” came amid an impasse over Iran’s escalating nuclear activities and as Western powers fear Tehran may be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies. Israel has long said it will not allow Iran — which openly calls for Israel’s destruction — to have nuclear weapons.
Although symbolic at this stage, the censure motion aims to raise diplomatic pressure on Iran, with the option to potentially refer the issue to the UN Security Council.
In the past, similar resolutions have prompted Tehran to retaliate by removing surveillance cameras and other equipment from its nuclear facilities and ratcheting up its uranium enrichment activities.
According to the IAEA, Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to the high level of 60 percent, just short of weapons-grade, while it keeps accumulating large uranium stockpiles.
The IAEA has said that Tehran has significantly ramped up its nuclear program and now has enough material to build several atomic bombs — if enriched to weapons-grade purity.
The Islamic Republic has gradually broken away from its commitments under the nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015.
The landmark deal provided Iran with relief from Western sanctions in exchange for curbing its atomic program, but it fell apart after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States under then-president Donald Trump in 2018.
Efforts to revive the deal have so far failed.
