Iran Is Stockpiling Uranium During US Talks: Agency

Even as it negotiates with the US on limiting its weapons program, a new United Nations report says, Iran has roughly doubled its stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium in the past quarter—a rate of about one nuclear weapon's worth per month. Based on International Atomic Energy Agency measures, that would indicate Iran has enough highly enriched uranium for about 10 nuclear weapons, reports the Wall Street Journal, which has seen the UN atomic agency's assessment. Agency Director General Rafael Grossi expressed "serious concern" in the report and urged Iran to change direction.

Iran's Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Organization countered that the report was based on "unreliable and differing information sources" and outdated data, calling it biased and unprofessional, per the AP. The statement said that although Iran maintains it has the right to carry out a peaceful nuclear program that would include uranium enrichment, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a religious decree that the nation's defense arsenal is not to include nuclear weapons. US and Iranian negotiators, who have held five rounds of talks, are split on whether a deal will allow for uranium enrichment, per the Journal.

Israel responds: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office quickly reacted to the UN agency's report, per the BBC, saying in a statement that "such a level of enrichment exists only in countries actively pursuing nuclear weapons and has no civilian justification whatsoever." In a televised speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, lead negotiator in the talks with the US, answered that, like the Israelis, his government considers nuclear weapons unacceptable. "We agree with them on this issue," he said. (More Iran nuclear weapons program stories.)