The United States has warned that its patience with Iran “is not unlimited” after offering a meeting to discuss the Persian nuclear program.

The United States on Wednesday warned that his patience with the Iranian regime “is not unlimited”, after renewing an offer for talks on the Persian nuclear program.

Joe Biden’s government offered to meet with Tehran on February 18 under the auspices of the European Union (EU), at a time of tension following the latest violations of the 2015 nuclear deal by the Islamic Republic.

“This is an urgent challenge for us”the State Department spokesman said, Ned Prize, in reference to steps Iran took to stop complying with the deal to protest sanctions imposed by Donald Trump’s administration after the former Republican president withdrew the United States from the pact.

“Our patience is not unlimited”Price warned reporters. “But we believe, and the president was clear on this, that the most effective way to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon was diplomacy. That’s what we are doing now.”, he pointed out.

The White House press secretary, Jen psakiHe said, for his part, that the United States was still awaiting the Iranian regime’s response to the invitation to a meeting.

The Islamic Republic has publicly insisted on its position that the United States must lift all sanctions before it can once again honor its nuclear commitments.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Tuesday that Iran is enriching uranium in greater quantity and purity than what was agreed in the nuclear pact, while developing other atomic capabilities.

In its latest report on Iran, the UN nuclear agency says The Islamic Republic currently has 2,967.8 kilograms of enriched uranium (10 times more than allowed), in a small part (17.6 kilograms) with a purity of up to 20%.

IAEA inspectors have also warned that Tehran has increased the number of more modern and faster centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, a material that has civilian as well as military use for making bombs.

Specifically, the Iranians installed waterfalls with 348 IR-2m type centrifuges, apart from the 5,060 IR1 type machines authorized by the nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, for its acronym in English.

In addition, Iranian engineers continued their preparations to install even more advanced and faster centrifuges, such as the IR4 and IR6, the IAEA noted in its report.

The production of enriched uranium is at the center of the nuclear dispute with Iran.

The JCPOA allows enrichment up to 3.67%, but Iran began in 2019 to achieve purity above this level, and since the end of last year, it has already reached nearly 20%, an important step towards reaching the 80% or 90% required for an atomic bomb.

In another report released Tuesday by the IAEA, inspectors denounce that Iran continues to give no explanation for the origin of atomic particles in several places not officially declared nuclear so far.

According to the UN agency’s analysis, Iran’s explanations are not “technically credible”, so she asked for more details.

Tehran did not respond to a letter sent on January 25 asking for an explanation within 15 days, nor to a reminder sent on February 10.

In the absence of satisfactory explanations, The IAEA has expressed “deep concern” that atomic material is present in one of these undeclared sites, which would constitute a serious violation of the nuclear safeguards (controls) agreement between Iran and the United States. UN.

Iran, for its part, assured that these were allegations made by Israel, its main enemy.

Israel’s intelligence services acquired an important record of Iran’s nuclear activities about two years ago and released information on alleged military intentions of Iran’s nuclear program until 2003.

The two IAEA reports were released on Tuesday, two days after an interim deal was reached with Iran, with more limited checks and inspections, over the next three months.

This change, negotiated by the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, last weekend in Tehran, it was necessary before the entry into force on Tuesday of a law adopted by the Iranian parliament which suspends a large part of international inspections and increases annual production of 120 kilos of uranium to 20%.

Iran intends to pressure new US administration to lift sanctions, in particular the oil embargo, before joining the JCPOA again.

US President Joe Biden wants to return to the JCPOA, abandoned by Trump, although it demands that Iran once again comply with all the rules of the pact.

This treaty, signed by Iran and then six major powers (the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany) considerably limits the Iranian nuclear program to prevent the Islamic Republic from taking control. control of atomic bombs.

In return, international sanctions against Iran were lifted, although Trump reimposed punitive measures after the pact was released in May 2018.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, the three European powers of the agreement, they urged Iran on Tuesday not to prevent international inspections of its nuclear facilities.

The foreign ministers of the three countries said in a joint statement “that they deeply regret that Iran has started, as of today, to suspend the additional protocol and the transparency measures” established in the nuclear deal of 2015.

Iran’s decision is “dangerous” and represents “a further violation” of its commitments, since it “considerably” reduces the IAEA’s oversight capacity.

The Additional Protocol to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is one of the main points of the JCPOA, as it allows for unannounced inspections in any civilian and military installation in Iran.

With information from AFP and EFE

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