Iran has denied the agency access to cameras and other surveillance equipment intended to monitor the progress of its nuclear program, making it very difficult to know exactly how much uranium has been enriched to a high level. “When it comes to the nuclear field, good words are not enough,” said Mr Grossi, adding that Iran must grant inspectors access “commensurate with the size” of its uranium enrichment program if the agency is to credibly ensure that it peaceful.
Given Iran’s steady advances in technical knowledge and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the country is now regarded by many as a ‘threshold state’, capable of making a bomb if it so chooses, although Tehran denies that it ever intends to. is to do that. That gives Iran significant clout and could encourage other countries to pursue nuclear weapons, effectively fragmenting the 52-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In July, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the country now had the technical capacity to produce an atomic bomb. His comments were echoed on Monday by Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Three weeks ago, Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6, said he doubted Iran would accept the extension of the nuclear deal. “I am skeptical that the Supreme Leader will go for the deal,” he said, referring to Ayatollah Khamenei. He added that while an agreement was on the table, and despite his belief that China and Russia would not block a deal, “I don’t think the Iranians want it.”
Still, it is not considered likely that neither Tehran nor Washington will declare the negotiations closed, as that would present complicated choices about what to do next, given the repeated vows of the United States and Israel that they will do whatever it takes to prevent Iran a nuclear weapon. In mid-July, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, signed a joint statement saying that the United States would use “all elements of national power” to deny Iran the ability to arm itself with nuclear weapons.
The Biden administration recently imposed further sanctions on Iran targeting companies used by the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Company. Iran then announced it was activating hundreds of new and advanced centrifuges previously installed at an underground nuclear site in Natanz.