Alleged higher Iran enrichment worries Germany, Israel - WTOP News

"Iran is Israel's regional archrival, and recently reinstalled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already has threatened military actions against Tehran."

"Tehran has long insisted its program is for peaceful purposes, though the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and nonproliferation experts say Iran pursued a secret nuclear weapons program up until 2003."

"Baerbock stressed the importance of "preventing a nuclear escalation by Iran by diplomatic means, because every alternative would be disastrous.""

"BERLIN (AP) -- Germany and Israel are worried about an accusation attributed to international inspectors that Iran enriched uranium to 84% purity, the German foreign minister said Tuesday, insisting that there would be no plausible civilian justification for such a move."

"Annalena Baerbock spoke at a news conference with Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen days after an Iranian official called the allegation part of a "conspiracy" against Tehran amid tensions over its nuclear program."

"She added that "it's important ... that the international community make this clear to Iran with a united voice.""

"However, uranium at 84% is nearly at weapons-grade levels of 90% -- meaning any stockpile of that material could be quickly used to produce an atomic bomb if Iran chooses."

"The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog hasn't denied the report, saying only "that the IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of recent agency verification activities."

"Cohen pointed to two options to deal with Iran -- using a so-called "snapback" mechanism in the Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal to reimpose U.N. sanctions, and "to have a credible military option on the table as well.""From our intelligence and from our knowledge, this is the right time to work on these two specific steps," he said."

"A spokesman for Iran's civilian nuclear program, Behrouz Kamalvandi, sought last week to portray any detection of uranium particles enriched to that level as a momentary side effect of trying to reach a finished product of 60% purity -- which Tehran already has announced it is producing."

"Biden administration officials have for months said that Iran's breakout time -- the amount of time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade material for one nuclear bomb -- had dwindled to a matter of weeks."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Kahl said that "Iran's nuclear progress since" the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal "has been remarkable.""Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA, it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one fissile, one bomb's worth of fissile material," Kahl said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing, using the acronym for the formal name of the deal: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action."

This is a positive sentiment.