More than a year after its first deviations, Iran continues to violate the 2015 nuclear deal, of which it is still formally a part. In confidential documents intended for member countries, elements of which were published Friday, June 5, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – in charge of non-proliferation issues – reports on the reported continuation of the an increase in stocks of low-enriched uranium from Iran. The international organization also notes the limits of their collaboration. The Iranian authorities have notably refused to allow IAEA inspectors to access sensitive sites and to respond to requests concerning certain material linked to suspicious activities carried out in the 2000s.
Regarding the continuing violations of the 2015 agreement between the Islamic Republic, the member states of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the European Union, the IAEA has observed a continuous increase in the stock of uranium enriched detained by Iran which reached 1,571.6 kilograms on May 20, nearly eight times more than the authorized quantity. The pact, which forced Tehran to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions against the country, is now seen as an empty shell. In response to the U.S. exit from the agreement in 2018 and the reinstatement of unilateral sanctions by Washington that continue to distort the Iranian economy, Tehran began to gradually renounce its commitments on the file from May 2019.
Thus, the Islamic Republic was able to increase its stock of enriched uranium, raise its enrichment level to 4.5% against the 3.67% set in the agreement, increase the number and performance of its centrifuges and declare in January it abandoned all operational limits to its nuclear program. These successive discrepancies were decided against the backdrop of mounting security tensions between Washington and Tehran. Presented as reversible, these measures were intended to encourage Europeans to guarantee Iran the economic dividends from its renunciations in 2015.
With Paris, London and Berlin having shown themselves incapable, Iran continued to escalate, effectively reducing the time it would take to develop a nuclear bomb. Compliance with the provisions of the 2015 agreement was supposed to keep him away from at least a year. These violations were orchestrated openly, under the eyes of IAEA inspectors, who were able to continue their inspection activities in the country even at the height of the health crisis caused by Covid-19. The 4.5% enrichment rate observed recently has been stable for almost a year and remains well below the 90% rate that would allow the manufacture of a bomb.
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