The U.N. atomic watchdog said Thursday it believes that Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and criticized Tehran for continuing to bar the agency’s officials from accessing or monitoring Iranian nuclear sites.
Watch the briefing in the player above.
State Department officials say that the U.S. “echo concerns that there has been no progress in clarifying and resolving Iran’s outstanding safeguards issues.”
“We urge Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA’s safeguards investigation so that the agency can be confident that all the nuclear material in Iran is under those safeguards,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington Thursday
In its quarterly report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that according to its assessment, as of Oct. 22, Iran has an estimated 62.3 kilograms (137.3 pounds) of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent fissile purity.
That amounts to an increase of 6.7 kilograms since the IAEA’s last report in September. That enrichment to 60 percent purity is one short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Nonproliferation experts have warned in recent months that Iran now has enough 60 percent-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb.
The IAEA report, which was seen by The Associated Press, also estimated that as of Oct. 22, Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was at 3673.7 kilograms — a decrease of 267.2 kilograms since the last quarterly report in September.
The Vienna-based IAEA said it was unable to verify the exact size of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium due to limitations that Tehran imposed on U.N. inspectors last year and the removal of the agency’s monitoring and surveillance equipment in June at sites in Iran.
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It has been nearly two years since IAEA officials have had full access to monitor Iran’s nuclear sites, and five months since the surveillance equipment was removed.
The IAEA’s assessment comes as efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program, have stalled.
Meanwhile, Price confirmed that Saudi Arabia has released an American woman it took into custody after she spoke out on her efforts to leave the country with her young Saudi-American daughter.
Carly Morris was taken into custody by Saudi authorities in the north-central city of Buraidah on Monday, according to the Freedom Initiative, a Washington-based advocacy group. Morris has faced Saudi Arabia’s strict laws on male guardianship in her three-year effort to leave the kingdom again with her 8-year-old daughter.
Freedom Initiative says Saudi authorities interrogated Morris about her tweets on the case before releasing her Wednesday.
Meanwhile, soccer fans from Israel and the Palestinian territories will be able to share flights to the World Cup in Qatar in a breakthrough agreement announced by FIFA. The organization says charter flights to Doha from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv for soccer games starting on Nov. 20 will be open to all Palestinians.
This includes residents from the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip who typically cannot travel through Israel’s main airport.
Though Israel and Qatar do not share diplomatic relations, temporary consular service will be set up in Doha for the tournament.
Washington lauded the development and said it will “benefit Israeli and Palestinian soccer fans alike as a step towards expanding greater freedom of travel for all.”
“The United States congratulates FIFA, Israel, and Qatar on the historic step of opening direct flights between Tel Aviv and Doha for the duration of the World Cup,” Price said.
Adding, “Today’s announcement is a historic development and an important step that also holds great promise to bolster…
Read More: WATCH: State Department holds briefing as reports suggest Iran increased its uranium stockpile