Iran Is Assembling Equipment Ready to Generate Crucial Nuclear-Weapons Content

Iran has taken a substantial new move towards doable atomic-weapons production, starting up get the job done on an assembly line to manufacture a important substance utilized at the main of nuclear warheads, the United Nations atomic agency explained in a confidential report Wednesday, boosting the stakes in Tehran’s standoff with Washington forward of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The Worldwide Atomic Energy Agency, in a report for member states seen by The Wall Street Journal, mentioned Iran has advised the watchdog that it has begun manufacturing devices it will use to deliver uranium metal at a web page in Isfahan in coming months.

Uranium metal can be made use of to build the main of a nuclear weapon.

Iran hasn’t manufactured uranium metallic so significantly, senior Western officers claimed. The IAEA claimed Tehran experienced offered it no timeline for when it would do so. Still, the advancement provides Iran nearer to crossing the line between nuclear functions with a prospective civilian use, these kinds of as enriching nuclear fuel for energy-generating reactors, and nuclear-weapons work, a thing Tehran has very long denied ever carrying out.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharib Abadi, mentioned Wednesday on Twitter that Iran would generate uranium steel, declaring it would allow for the progress of a new fuel for the Tehran civilian study reactor. Iran has stated it would just take four to 5 months to install the tools to generate a uranium powder from which uranium metallic is created.