Tel Aviv: Israel insists that Iran is bluffing its way to the bomb. The Israeli government told Washington that it does not give envy credit to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“The Iranians are mocking the agency, and the US and European countries swallow their lies,” an Israel defence source said.
According to Iran International, a website operated from London by the opposition to the Iranian regime writes that the UN nuclear watchdog has re-installed only some monitoring equipment that Iran ordered removed last year, the watchdog said in two reports on May 31.
“The re-installed equipment is a fraction of what the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had planned to set up to improve its surveillance of Iran’s nuclear activities, as the IAEA said it had agreed with Iran in March in a bid to defuse a standoff between both sides over Iran’s cooperation.”
According to the website at the same time, Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% has continued to grow and is now roughly enough for two nuclear bombs, one of the two confidential quarterly reports to member states showed.
“Iran has been pressing ahead with its enrichment program, which it has been progressively expanding and accelerating, including at its underground Fordow site that was developed in secret and which may have been built inside a mountain to protect it from potential air attack.”
One IAEA report on Wednesday, May 31 said Iran now had 114.1 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% and in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which can easily be enriched further – an increase of 26.6 kg from the previous quarter.
About 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is what the IAEA calls a “significant quantity”, defined as “the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded.”
Israel understands that the international effort to stop the Iranian nuclear program failed and therefore makes “different preparations” to deal with the imminent threat.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
