IAEA concerned about Iran's nuclear program

The report added that the newly announced design would see the Fordo plant's uranium enrichment output jump from 4.7 kg to more than 34 kg per month. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed concern that Iran plans to increase both the production and the purity of enriched uranium to weapons-grade levels, despite Tehran's insistence that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

In this report, the IAEA called on Iran to seriously and urgently carry out the agency's enhanced inspections. The IAEA report affirmed that these inspections will help the IAEA provide timely and reliable technical assurances that the nuclear facility is not being misused to produce uranium of a higher purity than Iran has declared, nor is there any diversion of declared nuclear material.

The report's disclosure comes just a week after European and Iranian officials agreed to hold a meeting in Geneva before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January 2025.

In 2018, Mr. Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed by Iran with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany in July 2015 and reimposed many sanctions on Iran. Tehran then scaled back its commitments in the deal, raising concerns about the risk of the deal falling apart. Since then, the remaining participating countries have tried to promote many rounds of negotiations to save the deal, but have not achieved any results.