With less than two weeks to go before nuclear talks between Iran and western powers are slated to restart in Vienna, the Iranian regime appears to have stepped up its production of sensitive equipment, in particular components of centrifuges, US officials have told the Wall Street Journal.
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According to the WSJ report, unidentified diplomats familiar with Tehran's activities have claimed that the Karaj facility – located some 50 km. (31 miles) northwest of Tehran – restarted activity in August, and operations have since ramped up.
Until recently, the Karaj site was under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, but that oversight was stopped after an explosion that Iran attributed to Israel damaged some of the equipment that was being used to document activity at the location.
The sources expressed concern that Iran could divert advanced centrifuges to undeclared sites to move closer to a nuclear weapon.
One diplomat suggested that enough parts for 170 centrifuges have been produced since the facility reopened.
Since the renewal of production, Iran has refused to allow IAEA inspectors access to the site, the WSJ reported.
In September, Iran acknowledged that it removed surveillance cameras installed by nuclear inspectors.
While there is reportedly no evidence that Iran is planning to move the centrifuge parts into a weapons program, one sourced diplomat suggested that "as the number of unmonitored centrifuges increases, the likelihood for this scenario increases."
i24NEWS contributed to this report
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