Saboteurs could leave traces of uranium at Iranian nuclear sites Envoy to Vienna says

A sabotage operation could be the reason why uranium particles were found earlier by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors at two Iranian nuclear sites, Mohsen Naziri Asl, the country's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said.

"Iran has provided its explanations on the possible reasons for the appearance of uranium particles at these sites. Given the fact that Iran has so far failed to find any technical reason for the presence of uranium particles, it is logical to assume that foreign elements, such as sabotage, probably led to the contamination of these sites," the IRNA news agency quoted the envoy as saying at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, Caliber.Az reports.

The diplomat added that Tehran had agreed to allow 14 new IAEA inspectors into the country. As of May 2024, 130 are authorized to work in Iran.

On June 3, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the agency had received no "credible explanations" from Tehran over the discovery of traces of uranium of "anthropogenic origin" at Iran's Varamin and Turkuzabad nuclear facilities.

Following Grossi's statement, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a draft resolution drafted by the UK, Germany and France that called on Tehran to explain the origin of the uranium traces and demanded that agency inspectors be allowed to visit the sites. Russia and China said the resolution was politicized.

On June 28, in response to the European troika resolution, Iran installed new cascades of uranium enrichment centrifuges and significantly increased the production capacity of its nuclear facilities.

According to Russia's permanent envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, the West provoked Tehran to increase uranium enrichment. The United States and Western countries are to blame for the failure to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program, the Russian diplomat emphasized.

Earlier, Iran denounced as false the IAEA information about the presence of traces of uranium in two undeclared Iranian nuclear facilities in Varamin and Turkuzabad. According to Tehran, the accusations are "fabricated by the Israeli regime." The uranium particles were discovered in the fall of 2020. The incident became public in February 2021.