Iran denies claim it enriched uranium to 84% purity

ANKARA (AA) - Iran has denied reports that it enriched uranium with 84% purity, and claimed that the enrichment did not exceed 60%.

Iran's Atomic Energy Agency spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi said late Sunday that the allegations in the international media that his country had enriched uranium to 84% were false claims, according to the state's official agency IRNA.

"The presence of uranium particles or particles with more than 60% during the enrichment process does not mean that uranium has been enriched more than 60%. We have not enriched more than 60% until now," he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has become a "political pressure tool," Kamalvandi said, adding: "This situation negatively affects the reliability and reputation of this institution."

Bloomberg, citing two unnamed senior diplomats, said on Sunday that international inspectors at Iran's nuclear facilities detected 84% pure enriched uranium last week.

Last November, Iran announced a decision to ramp up its uranium enrichment at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant in response to a resolution passed by the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA.

Iran also said it had begun enriching uranium to 60% purity at the facility and that two new centrifuge cascades, IR-2m and IR-4, were reviewed and operated at the Natanz nuclear facility in central Isfahan province.

Tensions between Tehran and the IAEA have heightened over the nuclear watchdog's probe into "uranium traces" found at three undeclared nuclear sites, while Iran has dismissed the probe.

It has also led to a stalemate in indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, with on and off talks underway since April 2021.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat.