The US State Department has issued a warning that America is prepared to continue to increase pressure on Iran to punish them if they do not cooperate with the IAEA over their civilian nuclear program.
US officials further complained about reports that Iran had install new cascades of centrifuges at both the Fordow and Natanz facilities, insisting that such activities have “no credible peaceful purpose.”
The G7 also chimed in on the situation, demanding Iran “cease and reverse nuclear escalations and stop the continuing uranium enrichment activities.” They said they were ready to enforce new measures against Iran over the issue.
This comes as the IAEA on Friday informed nations that Iran had begun feeding uranium into the new cascades installed in Natanz facility. This statement came a week after the IAEA voted on a non-binding resolution to complain about Iran’s lack of cooperation with them.
Despite giving the West more ammunition to issue warnings to Iran, the IAEA report, as usual, included no indication that Iran intended to use the centrifuges to enrich to higher levels than it already is, which is well short of weapons-grade.
The US continues to harp on about Iran’s uranium enrichment program, despite the most recent Nuclear Posture report from the Director of National Intelligence saying that Iran is not carrying out any efforts to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran’s enrichment program is meant to be centered around low enriched uranium to produce electricity at its nuclear reactor. This was notably accepted as a part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but has been an issue since 2018, when the US pulled out of the deal unilaterally and demanded everyone refuse to provide Iran with the promised sanctions relief.
Trying to force new negotiations to resolve the US-fueled standoff, Iran began to enrich uranium to higher levels. So far, that has just led to veiled threats over Iran’s program not meeting the obligations of the nuclear deal, even though the other nations aren’t meeting obligations either.
Iran issued a response to the G7 urging the group to distance itself from the “destructive policies of the past,” and stop “resorting to false claims” to try to justify more sanctions against them.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman assured that they intend to continue interaction and technical cooperation with the IAEA but faulting the agency for its political bias.
