BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 19. Iran does not seek permission from any country or authority to enrich uranium, said Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Trend reports.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran today, Baghaei emphasized that as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran enriches uranium within its rights under the agreement.
Responding to claims by the United States that countries enriching uranium should not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons, Baghaei noted that there are countries worldwide that enrich uranium without producing nuclear weapons. Based on this, Iran considers uranium enrichment a legal right.
Iran has announced that it has enriched uranium to levels of up to 60 percent in certain cases, stating that this enriched uranium is utilized in the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) and other nuclear facilities.
Additionally, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, stated last year (2024) that Iran was “noticeably close” to developing a nuclear bomb following the breakdown of nuclear negotiations. No non-nuclear weapons state enriches uranium to 60 percent. Iran has enriched uranium beyond the amount required to produce a bomb. While 90 percent enriched uranium is necessary to build a bomb, technically, uranium enriched to 60 percent is nearly equivalent in terms of its potential.
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