US questions Iran’s assent to non-proliferation pact amid inspections
Washington is challenging Tehran's commitment to global non-proliferation agreements, citing traces of uranium found at an Iranian site.
The Donald Trump administration is questioning whether Iran is sticking to its nonproliferation commitments as UN-backed inspectors found traces of uranium in what Israel has called a "warehouse" for atomic weapons.
In a declassified report provided to Congress in August, the State Department said that a cache of seized documents unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “could suggest efforts by Iran to conceal past activities that were nuclear-related.”
Iran “continues to demonstrate interest in acquiring dual-use items and materials that could be relevant to the manufacture of advanced centrifuges” and has continued to employ scientists and maintain historical documents from the so-called Amad program shelved more than a decade ago, including its chief Mohsen Farizadeh.
Unless the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is succeeded, the report indicates, Iran could “enable a production-scale operation” of nuclear centrifuges that would reduce the amount of time needed to produce weapons-grade uranium.
