Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi rejected media reports Sunday indicating the country has enriched uranium to levels beyond 60 percent purity, saying it is a “distortion of the facts.”
Kamalvandi denied such reports in an interview with the official news agency IRNA, following a Bloomberg report which said that international atomic monitors in Iran last week had detected uranium enriched to 84 percent purity, a concentration just 6 percent below of that needed for a nuclear weapon.
The nuclear official dismissed that as a smear campaign, saying “the existence of uranium particles above 60 percent does not mean the same thing as enrichment above 60 percent.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency responded in a tweet that it was discussing the results of its recent verification activities with Iran and will inform its board of directors as appropriate.
An earlier statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it informed the IAEA of its decision to start enriching uranium to the purity level of 60 percent at Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) in Nov. 2022.
