TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran has called on the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog to prevent the publication of ‘unnecessary’ details about Tehran’s nuclear program, state TV reported on Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran had “no credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal.
The report quotes a statement from Iran’s nuclear department that asked the International Atomic Energy Agency not to publish details about Iran’s nuclear program that could cause confusion.
“The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to avoid unnecessary details and prevent misunderstandings,” the statement said. It did not expand.
On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain pressured Iran to reject its plan to develop uranium metal, calling it “the latest planned breach” of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The purpose of the agreement is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does not want to do.
“Iran has no reliable civilian use for uranium metal,” they said in a joint statement. “The production of uranium metal could have military consequences.”
The IAEA said on Thursday that Iran had announced that it had begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal. He said Tehran’s maintaining its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal production was part of its ‘stated goal of designing an improved type of fuel’.
Iran responded to the European statement on Sunday, saying Iran had notified the UN’s nuclear watchdog almost two decades ago of its plans for “peaceful and conventional” uranium metal production. He also said he provided the agency with updated information two years ago on its plans to manufacture advanced fuel with cilide.
According to the statement, uranium metal is an ‘intermediate’ for the production of uranium silicide, a fuel used in nuclear reactors, which is safer and has more power than uranium oxide-based fuel, which Iran currently produces.
The three European countries along with the US, Russia and China have signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran banning research and production of uranium metal.
President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US in 2018 from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. After the US then pushed up the sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly dropped the restrictions on nuclear development.
Elected President Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time of signing the agreement during the Obama administration, said he hopes to return the U.S. to the agreement.