All news

Tehran sees no grounds for suspending uranium enrichment to level of 20 percent

Another round of talks on the Iranian nuclear problem will be held in Moscow on June 18-19

TEHRAN, May 27 (Itar-Tass) — Iran does not see any grounds for suspending uranium enrichment to the level of 20 percent, said on Sunday head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation Fereidun Abbadi-Davani.

“We see no grounds to step back on the question of enrichment up to 20 percent, since we produce such uranium as much as necessary for us – no more, nor less,” the Mehr news agency quotes his words.

The group of “five plus one” (international mediators on settling the Iranian nuclear problem, consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) demanded at the round of talks on “the Iranian nuclear programme” held in Baghdad last Wednesday and Thursday that Iran should stop enriching uranium to the level of 20 percent.

This nuclear fuel is necessary for the republic to ensure the operation of the Tehran research reactor, used for medical aims. A report by IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano, published earlier, says that Iran increased stockpiles of low-enriched uranium from 110 kilos to 145 kilos over the past three months.

Reports appeared earlier that IAEA experts detected traces of uranium, enriched to the level of 27 percent on an installation for fuel enrichment at the Fordu nuclear facility near the Iranian city of Kum.

The level of uranium enrichment, officially stated by the Iranian Islamic Republic, does not top 20 percent as to the content of uranium isotope 235. The Amano report points out that the Iranian side claims that the uranium level was higher due to “a technical error, not depending on an operator”.

The Six and Iran agreed in Baghdad to discuss further problems with 20-percent uranium enrichment. Another round of talks on the Iranian nuclear problem will be held in Moscow on June 18-19.