Iran 'pressing the gas pedal' on uranium production, warns UN's top inspector

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi tells The National that Trump will find the situation with Tehran even more complex than when he left office

Tehran is “pressing the gas pedal” on the refinement of uranium and has its largest stockpile to date, the UN's top nuclear weapons inspector said.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran has about 200kg of uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent purity. That is close to the roughly 90 per cent required for use in a weapon, and in principle enough for about five nuclear bombs.

“They are pressing the gas pedal. It is for you to interpret and give your analysis of that, but this is the fact – we have seen it,” said Mr Grossi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, following a visit to Iran in November.

Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, separately told delegates in Davos that if his country wanted to build a atomic weapon it "could have done it a long time ago". He said Iran was "not a security threat" despite warnings from the US and Israel about its nuclear ambitions.

"I hope that this time around a 'Trump 2' will be more serious, more focused, more realistic," he said. He said the US policy of restoring sanctions "has failed" in limiting Tehran's nuclear activities and "imposed heavy economic costs on the Iranian people".

The situation has not gotten any easier from the time President Trump left [office]

Rafael Grossi,
International Atomic Energy Agency

Asked by The National about relations between Tehran and the new US administration, Mr Grossi said US President Donald Trump would inherit a complex situation.

“So the situation has not gotten any easier from the time President Trump left,” he said. “The nuclear programme has grown dramatically in terms of capabilities, in terms of facilities, in terms of capacities, also in terms of the inventory of nuclear material, now enriching at 60 per cent.

“And so I believe that that makes it for a wider, bigger field of action for negotiation.”

Mr Grossi has not yet met Mr Trump but said he sensed the administration was open to dialogue with Tehran. Mr Grossi is seen as one of the Western officials with the closest working relationship with Tehran, and said he speaks to the Iranian president frequently.

“One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition to have a conservation and perhaps move into some sort of agreement,” he said.

Past talks involved the dropping of sanctions against Iran in exchange for a slowdown or halt of the nuclear programme. Mr Trump axed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 and applied a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran.

In Davos on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tehran must work to improve relations with its Middle East neighbours and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.

Russia trip

Mr Grossi said he will visit Ukraine soon to inspect the nuclear power station in Zaporizhzhia, which was captured by Russian forces in March 2022. It is Europe's largest nuclear power plant and one of the largest in the world.

There has been repeated fighting in the area in the past three years, raising fears of a catastrophe.

"The situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant requires me, and this has been my effort throughout, to talk to both sides. Of course, and I saw President Zelenskyy yesterday.

On visit to the plant, Mr Grossi said: "We are working on that, it will be soon."

"We see increased military activity around the plant. We are worried because of this [and are] following, of course, this very, very closely."