Israel Urges World To Take Harder Line On Iran As It Boosts Enrichment

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said Iran had increased its stock of 60-percent enriched uranium from 10 kilogram to 50 kilogram since August 2021.

In an address to dozens of foreign ambassadors on Wednesday, Gantz called for the implementation of a robust “plan B” that would include using force as well as economic and diplomatic pressure against Iran to rein in its nuclear program.

According to the minister, Tehran continues to “bury its [nuclear] means in underground hiding places and installed another cascade in Fordow”, Iran’s second most important uranium-enrichment site.

“We are in a race against time”, Gantz warned, adding that a good nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers isn’t the one that is currently being cooked up by negotiators in Vienna.

“We want an agreement that doesn’t have an expiration date that gives Iran legitimacy to advance its nuclear program when it ends, with extensive monitoring everywhere at any time and monitoring the ballistic missiles Iran is developing”, he said.

In a Wednesday statement summarizing a confidential report to member states seen by Reuters, the UN nuclear watchdog said that Iran moved all its equipment to make centrifuge parts from its mothballed workshop at Karaj to its sprawling Natanz site. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its monitors had verified that “these machines remained under agency seal at this location in Natanz and, therefore, were not operating".

Earlier in the day, Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Iran had sent documents related to outstanding issues to the IAEA.