Despite the recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran did resolve issues of concern regarding its nuclear program, Israel is still planning to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
In its latest report about Iran’s nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that the Islamic Republic has successfully disambiguated the IAEA’s concerns regarding two outstanding inquiries about its nuclear activities.
The IAEA specifically addressed unresolved ambiguities concerning Iran’s highly enriched uranium particles and a site where man-made uranium was found, and announced in its report this Wednesday that both issues have been resolved.
According to the report, distributed to member states of the IAEA, inspectors “no longer had questions” on uranium particles found to be enriched to 83.7% at its underground Fordo facility, a matter that had sparked tensions over the last several months as uranium enriched to 90% is weapons-grade material.
While the IAEA couldn’t confirm why such highly-enriched uranium should be found near the site, Iran had argued those particles were a byproduct of its current enrichment as particles can reach higher enrichment levels in fluctuations. Finally accepting Iran’s explanations, the organization noted in its report that “following its evaluation of the data, the agency had assessed that the information provided was not inconsistent with Iran’s explanation … and that the agency had no further questions on this matter at this stage”.
The report further said investigators also have closed off their investigation of traces of man-made uranium found at Marivan, near the city of Abadeh, some 525 kilometers (325 miles) southeast of Tehran. This is while for months, the United States and Israel tried to link Marivan to Iran’s secret military nuclear program and accused Iran of conducting high-explosives tests there in the early 2000s.
Separately, the IAEA acknowledged installing new cameras at a workshop in the Iranian city of Isfahan where centrifuge rotors and bellows are manufactured. Centrifuges rapidly spin uranium gas, enriching it.
Israel, not happy with the IAEA report on Iran
Despite the expressive report by the IAEA about uranium enrichment activities of Iran, and also despite the fact that Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting its activities are entirely peaceful, Israel seems to still be willing to restore to military option against Tehran’s nuclear program.
Dismissing the IAEA report, Israel’s news agency, Times of Israel, reported this Friday that the security cabinet in the Knesset is set to convene next week to discuss a potential multi-front conflict including Iran and Hezbollah
As the report noted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will also hold a security assessment before the security cabinet meets this coming Sunday to voice their concerns about Iran.
Following the IAEA report, Netanyahu put out a short video message in his YouTube page and said “I hear all the reports about Iran, so I have a sharp, clear message for Iran and the international community: Israel will do what it must to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb”.
Likewise, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat dismissed the IAEA report during a news conference this Friday and said the material at Marivan “could have extremely dangerous consequences.” Haiat also noted that “the explanations provided by Iran for the presence of nuclear material at the site are not reliable or technically possible,” and that “Iran continues to lie to the IAEA and deceive the international community.”
