Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Iran has said its stockpile of enriched uranium remains beneath the rubble of the nuclear sites bombed by Israel and the US, a rare public reference to the whereabouts of its fissile material.
The status of the stockpile — particularly 408kg of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels — has been a key concern of western powers in the wake of Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told state television on Thursday night that the nuclear materials were all “located under the debris of the bombed installations”.
He added that Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization was “assessing whether these materials are accessible or not”.
Araghchi’s comments come as Iran faces a looming deadline to meet conditions set by European powers, including addressing concerns about the stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or having international sanctions reimposed on the Islamic republic at the end of the month.
Since Israel’s war, western intelligence assessments on the extent of damage to Iran’s programme have been mixed.
President Donald Trump said the programme had been “obliterated” after the US briefly joined Israel’s attack, bombing Iran’s main enrichment facilities, Fordow and Natanz, as well as another nuclear site and storage facility in Isfahan.
But diplomats and nuclear experts suspect that Tehran may have moved the stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the strikes.
After the war, Iran suspended co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, meaning the UN nuclear watchdog has neither been able to assess the full scale of the damage nor what happened to the stockpile.
The UK, Germany and France cited Tehran’s failure to allow the IAEA to resume full inspections and clarify the status of the enriched uranium as reasons behind their decision to activate a so-called snapback process on August 28, which will lead to the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran.
They have also said Tehran must resume nuclear talks with the Trump administration.
Under the snapback mechanism — which is part of a 2015 deal Tehran signed with the so-called E3, the Obama administration, Russia and China — there is a 30-day period before the sanctions come back into effect. That provides a narrow window for diplomacy and the potential for the process to be extended, if Iran meets the E3’s conditions.
Ellie Geranmayeh, at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the E3’s response to Araghchi’s comments was likely to be: “Prove it.”
But she added that the European conditions to Iran were “detached from the realities following the June strikes”.
“For Tehran, providing the west with eyes and ears on the ground, and clarity over its highly enriched stockpile, is one of the few bargaining cards it has left,” Geranmayeh said. “Iran is trying to preserve ambiguity over its nuclear programme — both to keep its options open over weaponisation, but more likely to draw Trump back into talks.”
Iran began expanding its nuclear activity after Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018 and imposed waves of sanctions on the Islamic republic. The European powers are still signatories to the 2015 accord.
Tehran was in the midst of nuclear talks with the Trump administration when Israel launched its attack in June.
Rafael Grossi, IAEA director-general, said this week that the agency and Tehran had reached a preliminary agreement to resume co-operation, describing it as “an important step”.
But there were scant details of the agreement, including when IAEA inspectors would be able to visit Fordow and Natanz.
Araghchi said on Thursday that “no inspection is currently on the agenda”. He reiterated that the agreement with the IAEA would be void if the E3 implemented snapback.
The E3 have said they remain committed to diplomacy, but they are wary about whether Iran will allow full IAEA inspections.
“Iran is obfuscating the status and location of this material from the international community, and Iran refused to allow the agency to verify this stockpile,” they said in a joint statement to the agency’s board this week.
Read the full article here