Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November in violation of its deal with world powers and is refusing to answer questions about three possible undeclared nuclear sites, the international atomic watchdog agency said Tuesday.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency made the statement in a confidential report distributed to member countries that was seen by The Associated Press. The agency said as of Feb. 19, Iran's total stockpile of low-enriched uranium amounted to 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons), compared to 372.3 kilograms noted in its last report on Nov. 3, 2019.
The current stockpile puts Iran within reach of the amount needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
The nuclear deal that Iran signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms.
The JCPOA promised Iran economic incentives in return for the curbs on its nuclear program, but since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal unilaterally in 2018, Iran has been slowly violating the deal's restrictions.
With the violations, Tehran has said it hopes to put pressure on the other nations involved to increase economic incentives to make up for hard-hitting sanctions imposed by Washington after the American withdrawal.
In a second report issued Tuesday, the IAEA said it had identified three locations in Iran where the country possibly stored undeclared nuclear material or undertook nuclear-related activities without declaring it to international observers. It said it had sent questions to Iran in three separate letters but received no answers.
With the nuclear deal in place, Iran's so-called "breakout time" stood around a year. As Iran has stepped away from the limits of the 2015 nuclear deal, it slowly has narrowed that window.
However, that doesn't mean that Iran would immediately rush toward a bomb if all materials were in place.
Prior to the nuclear deal, Iran enriched its uranium up to 20%, which is just a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. In 2013, Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was already over 7,000 kilograms with higher enrichment, but it didn't pursue a bomb.
Iran has been violating other restrictions in the JCPOA, including the stock of heavy water it is allowed and the number and type of centrifuges it operates.
