Iran has dismissed a recent report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which claims that it has increased the rate of its uranium enrichment. Iran noted that the increase in the rate of uranium enrichment at its Natanz and Fordow facilities is routine.
In a report to its members, the IAEA had said on Tuesday that its inspectors have verified that Iran has reversed the slowed rate of production of enriched uranium from 3 kg per month to about 9 kg per month since the end of November, Reuters reported.
Though the IAEA noted that Iran had maintained the 9 kg per month rate for almost all the first half of 2023 before it decided to slow it down to 3 kg in June, the report has invited strong reactions in the international media. The US has tried to link the development with attacks on its bases in the region carried out by the militias in Iraq and elsewhere.
Reacting to the IAEA report, the White House spokesperson said that, “Iran’s nuclear escalation is all the more concerning at a time when Iran-backed proxies continue their dangerous and destabilizing activities in the region, including the recent deadly drone attack and other attempted attacks in Iraq and Syria and Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” Al-Jazeera reported.
Several regional militias have carried out attacks on the US bases in Iraq and Syria in opposition to its continued support to Israeli genocide in Gaza. In one such attack in Erbil in Iraq on Monday, at least three US soldiers were injured. The US has long maintained that most of these militias are funded by Iran.
Iran has denied direct involvement in any such attacks on the US bases in the region. It has also maintained that some of the militias and forces in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, are mere ideological allies and it does not control them in any way.
Responding to the reactions to the IAEA findings, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday that what Iran was doing was nothing new and reports about Iranian nuclear activities were being hyped to divert the attention away from Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
More than 21,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 55,000 have been injured in the Israeli war in Gaza since October 7. Israel has refused to abide by the repeated UN resolutions calling for immediate ceasefire.
“We did not do anything new, and it is our routine activity that is being carried out according to the framework and regulations,” signed by Iran, Eslami said, according to IRNA.
Fars news agency reported Eslami terming the reactions to the IAEA report as “media propaganda” which “the White House and Zionist regime normally use” to “reduce the pressure of the global public opinion caused by the crimes they are committing in Gaza.”
