State Media-Nuclear Facilities Begin Enrichment Of Uranium To 60%

Iranian semi-official Mehr News reporting comments from the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran that the Fordow nuclear facility located near the city of Qom had begun to enrich uranium up to 60% purity, well in excess of what is required for the production of nuclear energy and towards weapons-grade uranium.

• The Iranian nuclear agency has stated that it has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its actions, and that they come as a 'strong response' to the IAEA Board of Governor's recent resolution calling for Tehran to comply with the body's investigation into uranium traces found at three sites that were not declared as nuclear facilities.
• Weapons-grade uranium requires enrichment to around 90%, leaving Iran still notably short. However, the 60% enrichment claimed by Tehran far exceeds the 3.67% stipulated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA, the Iran nuclear deal).
• The closer Iran gets to enriching uranium to weapons grade, the greater the prospect that Israel or the United States engages in significant cyber or physical attacks on Iranian facilities in an effort to stop Tehran developing nuclear weapons. With a right-wing gov't set to come to power in Israel under former PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the rhetoric in the Middle East around Iran's nuclear ambitions is unlikely to die down any time soon.