Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build “several” nuclear weapons if it chooses, the United Nations' top nuclear official is now warning. But diplomatic efforts aimed at again limiting its atomic program seem more unlikely than ever before as Tehran arms Russia in its war on Ukraine and as unrest shakes the Islamic Republic.
The warning from Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in response to questions from European lawmakers this week, shows just how high the stakes have become over Iran's nuclear program. Even at the height of previous tensions between the West and Iran under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran never enriched uranium as high as it does now.
The Argentine diplomat then referred to Benjamin Netanyahu's famous 2012 speech to the United Nations, in which the Israeli prime minister held up a placard of a cartoon-style bomb with a burning wick and drew a red line on it to urge the world to not allow Tehran's program to highly enrich uranium. While the 2015 nuclear deal drastically reduced Iran's uranium stockpile and capped its enrichment to 3.
Iran's mission to the U.N. did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on Grossi's remarks and authorities in Tehran did not directly acknowledge them. However, Iranian state television quoted Mohammad Eslami, the head of the country's civilian nuclear program, on Thursday as saying Tehran would welcome a visit by Grossi to the country.
Price and others in President Joe Biden's administration say any future talks with Iran remain off the table as Tehran cracks down on the months-long protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained in September by the country's morality police. At least 527 people have been killed and over 19,500 arrested amid the unrest, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group monitoring the protests.
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