Fresh construction work is under way at Iran’s highly sensitive underground Fordo nuclear site, satellite photos seen by the news agency Associated Press and unearthed by an anonymous Israeli defence analyst show.
The purpose of the work is not known and may be innocent, but Iran is certain to be asked to explain the photos at a foreign ministers’ meeting for signatories to the Iran nuclear deal scheduled for Monday, at which plans for a joint US-Iran recommitment to the deal are due to be discussed. It has not acknowledged any work is taking place at the site.
Iran said in September it had started to increase uranium enrichment at Fordo as one of five sequential steps taken to reduce its obligations under the agreement in response to Donald Trump’s decision to leave the deal in 2018.
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is more than 2.4 tonnes, 12 times the cap set by the deal, though still far below the more than 8 tonnes Iran had before signing it. Iran has also started enriching with advanced centrifuges at its underground plant at Natanz, where the deal says it can use only first-generation IR-1 machines.
Iran says it has a right to change its undertakings on enrichment due to US non-compliance, and the failure of the EU to trade with Iran.
It says it has been building underground at Fordo to avoid US or Israeli military attacks. The new construction at the site began in late September. Satellite images obtained from Maxar Technologies by AP show the construction taking place at a north-west corner of the site.
Iran allows UN weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency into the site, but is often accused of trying to keep information from the IAEA, and in 2009 US intelligence discovered Iran was undertaking nuclear work at Fordo in breach of undertakings. Iran insisted the 2009 work did not need to be notified to the UN, but this was rejected by the US and formed the backdrop to the signing of the nuclear deal in 2015.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Wednesday said Iran would fully comply with its commitments under the deal within hours of the US lifting sanctions.
“If sanctions can be removed, we shouldn’t delay, not even for an hour,” Khamenei said in comments similar to ones made earlier this week by President Hassan Rouhani. “I support the country’s officials as long as they are committed to the nation’s goals.”
An intense debate has been under way in Tehran over whether the US can ever be treated as a trustworthy partner after reneging on the 2015 deal.
Most factions in Iran believe the government must at a minimum insist it will not allow the existing agreement to be altered or expanded to include other issues such as its civil missile programme. The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, last week called for a follow-on agreement, as did the UK foreign affairs select committee this week. But some Democratic senators are pressing Biden to return to the deal unconditionally, saying pre-conditions will only lead to deadlock.
The IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that a side agreement or protocol might need to be added to the deal to take into account the US’s return to the arrangement, and recent Iranian breaches. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, rejected the suggestion, saying the only role of the agency was to monitor and verify nuclear-related actions and to provide real-time update reports. He said there would be no change to the agreement.
“There would be no renegotiation on the deal and in case of its revival, there is no necessity for a new document on the agency’s role. It’s not needed to complicate the situation,” he said.
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