Aditi Sharma 7th September, 2020
Iranian flag in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant (Source: gettyimages)
Iran has stocked itself with Uranium, which is 10 times more than the permitted level, specified under an international agreement according to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
According to the Associated Press, which has gone through a confidential document distributed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the members of the nuclear deal, the stockpile has reached 2,105 kgs from 1,571.6 kgs.
The news came to the knowledge of the concerned authorities after Iran provided access to IAEA inspectors into one of the two former nuclear sites which were already under suspicion. The agency is said to have picked testing samples from the second site as well.
The IAEA has also been criticising Iran for the suspicious behaviour and is demanding answers to all the questions raised against the undeclared nuclear activities going on.
As per the 2015 arrangement, which is otherwise called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran can just keep a Uranium stockpile of 202.8 kilograms. According to a report by the Washington-based Arms Control Association, IAEA said that the reserve of enhanced uranium is sufficient to create a weapon and expressed that Iran is improving uranium to a virtue of up to 4.5 per cent, while the 2015 atomic arrangement doesn't permit the immaculateness to be above 3.67 per cent.
At a gathering in Vienna on 1st September 2020, the rest of the participants—namely Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, said they stayed focused on the arrangement and needed to figure out how to guarantee its full implementation despite current challenges.
The atomic arrangement guaranteed Iran’s financial motivators as a by-product of the controls on its atomic program. President Donald Trump hauled the USA out of the arrangement singularly in May 2018, saying that it should have been renegotiated. According to BBC News, Iran has since gradually abused the limitations in an attempt to compel the rest of the countries to build the motivating forces to balance new, economy-devastating US sanctions.
Tehran has reacted by continuously surpassing cut-off points on its atomic exercises set down in the arrangement. Lately, the Trump organisation has made attempts to build pressure on Iran. However, Washington endured an embarrassing defeat in August when it fizzled in its offer to reimpose global assets on the Islamic republic.
(Sources: BBC News, Republic World, Business Standard)
Edited by Swikruti Kar