UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says that Iran's increased production of enriched uranium is a 'clear message' to its critics
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says that Iran's increased production of enriched uranium is a 'clear message' to its critics AFP

Iran plans a major increase in the production rate of highly enriched uranium, the UN nuclear watchdog said Friday in a confidential report seen by AFP.

An updated design of Iran's Fordo plant showed that the effect of the change "would be to significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent", the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said.

Production will jump to more than 34 kilogrammes of highly enriched uranium per month, compared to 4.7 kilogrammes previously, added the report to the IAEA's board of governors.

Uranium enriched to 60 percent brings it closer to the 90 percent needed to make a nuclear weapon. Iran denies it wants nuclear arms.

Speaking to AFP in Bahrain, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was sending a "clear message" after it was recently censured by the nuclear body's board of governors.

"This is a clear message that they are responding to what they feel is pressure," Grossi said on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue conference.

Last month, Iran said it would launch "new and advanced" centrifuges in response to an IAEA resolution that censured Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.

The censure motion brought by Britain, France, Germany, and the United States at the IAEA's 35-nation board follows a similar one in June.

"Quite clearly what has happened is in response to this, this is very clear," Grossi said, adding: "The significance cannot be underestimated."

In its report, the IAEA called on Iran to implement stepped-up inspections by the agency "as a matter of urgency".

Those will "enable the agency to provide timely and technically credible assurances that the facility is not being misused to produce uranium of an enrichment level higher than that declared by Iran, and that there is no diversion of declared nuclear material," it added.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing weapons capability.

But according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60 percent purity.

A landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers aimed to give Iran relief from crippling Western sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear programme to prevent it from developing weapons capability.

Tehran kept to the accord, but in 2018, during Donald Trump's first US presidency, Washington unilaterally pulled out of the agreement and slapped heavy sanctions back on Iran, leading to the Islamic republic to step up its nuclear programme.

Trump returns to office in January.

Iran, Britain, France and Germany last week agreed at a meeting in Geneva to continue diplomatic talks.

The meeting came amid surging tensions even before Trump's return to the White House.