IAEA reports no progress in Iran as uranium stock enriched to 60% grows

The UN nuclear watchdog on Monday reported no progress in talks with Iran on sensitive issues such as reinstalling surveillance cameras and explaining uranium traces at undeclared sites, according to two quarterly reports seen by Reuters.

At the same time, Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, continued to grow compared with the previous quarter albeit at a slower pace, despite some of it having been diluted, one of the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency reports to member states showed.

"The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) regrets that there has been no progress in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues in this reporting period," one report said, referring to Iran's failure to credibly explain the origin of uranium particles found at two undeclared sites.

The reports, sent to IAEA member states ahead of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors next week, also said that after limited progress on re-installing IAEA surveillance cameras in the previous quarter, there had since been none, further raising tensions with Western powers.

Iran and the IAEA announced an agreement in March on re-installing surveillance cameras introduced under a deal with major powers in 2015 but removed at Iran's behest last year. Only a fraction of the cameras and other monitoring devices the IAEA wanted to set up have been installed.

(Reuters)