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By Ayo Kehinde
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran is not building nuclear weapons, but warned that the country’s enrichment of uranium to 60% purity remains a serious concern for the international community.
The agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, revealed that inspectors found no evidence of “a systematic and structured program to manufacture nuclear weapons” in Iran, despite repeated claims by Israel and the United States.
Grossi made this clear during an interview with NBC News, noting that while Iran’s nuclear activities raise legitimate concerns, the agency has found no evidence of an active weapons program.
He, however, confirmed that Tehran had enriched uranium to 60% purity, a level significantly higher than that required for civilian nuclear power production and much closer to weapons-grade material.
According to the head of the IAEA, such a high level of enrichment is rare for countries without nuclear weapons. “This is something that only nuclear-armed countries have,” Grossi said, underscoring why the development continues to attract global attention.
Despite this, he argued that inspectors cannot conclude that Iran intends to build a bomb, stressing that no evidence of weapons activity had been detected.
Grossi explained that accumulating stockpiles of enriched uranium at that level was “the source of our concerns,” especially because there appeared to be “no clear target” for the accumulation of such material.
It revealed that Iranian centrifuges were “constantly spinning and producing more and more” enriched uranium, indicating sustained production capacity.
In theory, Grossi noted, the amount of uranium enriched to 60% could be further processed to produce enough material for more than 10 nuclear warheads.
“But do they have it? No,” he clarified, noting that the agency has found no indication that Iran currently possesses nuclear weapons, even as monitoring and verification efforts continue.
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