Iran claims uranium traces found at undeclared sites came in waste from abroad

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s nuclear chief has stated traces of enriched uranium discovered on its territory by UN inspectors have been introduced into the nation from overseas, disputing claims of secret nuclear exercise.

The UN’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, or IAEA, has for months been urgent Tehran to elucidate the presence of the nuclear materials at three undeclared websites.

The invention additional sophisticated efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been hanging by a thread since the US unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 beneath then-president Donald Trump.

In remarks revealed Thursday by Hamshahri newspaper, the pinnacle of the Atomic Vitality Group of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, stated the traces got here from waste introduced into Iran from different international locations.

Eslami stated the locations visited by UN inspectors have been a cattle farm, an deserted mine and a landfill.

“Within the landfill, they took samples from the waste that entered Iran from completely different international locations,” the report quoted him as saying.

“This doesn’t imply the place of discovery was a nuclear website or that it was an undeclared nuclear exercise.”

“The waste got here from Iraq and from different international locations,” Eslami stated.

“Now we have prevented the entry of a lot of this waste… They weren’t nuclear substances from our personal manufacturing however maybe traces from earlier use within the nation of origin.”

In a decision, final month, the IAEA’s board of governors deplored the dearth of cooperation and “technically credible” solutions from Tehran.

Because of this, the company stated it was unable to ensure the authenticity and integrity of Iran’s nuclear program.

However Eslami stated Tehran has “supplied documented and argued solutions to the request” of the UN nuclear watchdog.

An IAEA delegation had deliberate to journey to Tehran in November, however the go to didn’t happen.

The 2015 deal was designed to stop Iran from covertly growing a nuclear bomb, a purpose the Islamic republic has all the time denied.

Efforts to get Iran and the US again on board with the settlement have stalled.

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