Iran 'sticking to nuclear freeze'

A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran is sticking to the terms of the nuclear agreement signed last month.

Iran is sticking to a six-month nuclear freeze agreed under a November interim deal with world powers, the UN atomic agency says in a new report.

The International Atomic Energy Agency update released on Thursday said that uranium enrichment to medium levels - the main concern to the international community - "is no longer taking place", as agreed in the deal.

The IAEA also said that a proportion of Iran's medium-enriched uranium stockpile, as set out in the November deal, which took effect on January 20, "is being downblended and the remainder is being converted to uranium oxide".

Enrichment to low purities, however, "continues at a rate of production similar to that indicated" in the last report from November, meaning that its stockpile of this material rose in the last three months.

This is consistent with the agreement with world powers, as long as by the end of the six-month period on July 20 the stockpile is not higher than at the start.

Iran is currently building a facility to convert this type of material to oxide form, the IAEA report said, from which it would be more difficult to enrich to weapons-grade.

In addition, Iran has not installed any additional uranium enrichment centrifuges at either of its facilities, Natanz and Fordo, according to the IAEA.

Regarding a reactor being constructed at Arak, the IAEA said: "No additional major components have been installed at this reactor and there has been no manufacture and testing of fuel for the reactor."

Earlier on Thursday, Iran and the six powers - the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany - agreed on a timetable and a framework for negotiating a lasting nuclear accord, which could resolve a decade-old standoff over Iran's nuclear drive.


2 min read

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Source: AAP



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