Fears growing from militarizing Iranian nuclear file

Islam Mohamed

New proof of attempts to militarize the Iranian nuclear file is emerging, which raises international fears.

The Wall Street Journal published a report recently in which it said that United Nations inspectors had found new evidence of undeclared nuclear activities in Iran.

It quoted three diplomats who spoke on the issue and raised new questions about the scope of the Iran’s atomic ambitions.

They said samples taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency contained traces of radioactive material.

They added that the discovery could indicate Iran had undertaken work on nuclear weapons, based on where it was found.

The diplomats said they didn’t know the exact nature of what was found.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a virtual meeting with his counterparts from the U.K., France and Germany to discuss means of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and handling the danger posed by Tehran.

In recent months, Iran has scaled up its nuclear activities, breaching many of the limits in the 2015 nuclear agreement it sealed with the U.S., European powers, Russia and China.

These moves started over a year after the Trump administration exited the deal in May 2018 and then imposed broad sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the agreement.

It has also threatened to restrict IAEA inspectors’ access to sites starting later this month. These steps have caused growing concern in Washington about Iran’s nuclear intentions.