Iran Denies That It Has Enriched Uranium Beyond 60 Percent

Iran denied on Monday that it would have enriched uranium to 84 percent. The country is responding to reports on Sunday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in talks with Iran after it discovered uranium with enrichment levels just below 90 percent.

A purity of 90 percent is enough to make a nuclear bomb.

This information is “a distortion of the facts. So far, we have not made any attempt to enrich beyond 60 percent,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s nuclear energy organization, said Monday, according to the official agency IRNA. He said that “the presence of particles above 60 percent does not mean enrichment (uranium) above 60 percent.”

According to the Bloomberg news agency, citing two diplomatic sources, IAEA inspectors have yet to determine whether Iran produced the material intentionally or whether the concentration resulted from an accidental build-up due to technical problems with the centrifuges used to enrich uranium. However, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Twitter on Sunday evening that he would “keep the Board of Governors informed”.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani regretted the publication of the information and called on the IAEA to “take a professional stance towards Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.”