By Ayo Kehinde
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran is not building nuclear weapons, but warned that the country’s enrichment of uranium to 60 percent purity remains a serious source of concern for the international community.
Director General of the Agency, Rafael Grossi, disclosed that inspectors have not found evidence of “a systematic and structured programme to manufacture nuclear weapons” in Iran, despite repeated claims by Israel and the United States.
Grossi clarified this during an interview with NBC News, stressing that while Iran’s nuclear activities raise legitimate concerns, the agency has not uncovered proof of an active weapons programme.
He, however, confirmed that Tehran has enriched uranium to 60 percent purity — a level significantly higher than what is required for civilian nuclear energy production and much closer to weapons-grade material.
According to the IAEA chief, such a high enrichment level is uncommon for countries without nuclear weapons. “This is something only countries with nuclear weapons have”, Grossi said, underscoring why the development continues to draw global scrutiny.
Despite this, he maintained that inspectors could not conclude Iran intends to build a bomb, noting that no evidence of weaponisation activities has been detected.
Grossi explained that the stockpiling of uranium enriched to that level was “the source of the concerns we had”, particularly as there appeared to be “no clear objective” for accumulating such material.
He revealed that Iran’s centrifuges were “spinning constantly and producing more and more” of the enriched uranium, indicating sustained production capacity.
Theoretically, Grossi noted, the quantity of uranium enriched to 60 percent could be further processed to produce material sufficient for more than 10 nuclear warheads.
“But do they have them? No”, he clarified, emphasising that the agency has found no indication that Iran currently possesses nuclear weapons, even as monitoring and verification efforts continue.
