TEHRAN, December 17. /TASS/. Iran has boosted the uranium enrichment rate to a record high ever in the history of the national nuclear industry, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said on Saturday.

"The capacity for the enrichment of uranium in Iran is currently twice as high as the total capacity since the genesis of the nuclear industry in the country," the Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.

Eslami made this statement ahead of the visit of a mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to Iran, scheduled for Sunday. On Wednesday, the head of the Iranian regulator announced that the IAEA experts would visit Tehran soon. On the same day, the Al Arabiya TV channel reported, citing an IAEA spokesperson, that a team of the agency’s experts would arrive in Tehran on December 18.

On November 10, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that talks with Iran had ended in Vienna without results but the parties would maintain contact. Reuters reported later, citing an IAEA report, that Tehran had agreed to a visit by the agency to look into the origin of uranium particles found at three nuclear sites. The demand to allow IAEA inspectors to visit those facilities was a key condition for the reinstatement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal.