The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned Thursday that Iran had increased its stockpile of uranium well beyond the limits established in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, inching it closer to being capable of building a nuclear weapon.
In a confidential quarterly report to member nations, the IAEA said Iran has an estimated 33.2 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, an increase of 15.5 kilograms since November.
Such highly enriched uranium can be easily refined to make nuclear weapons. According to The Associated Press, the 33.2-kilogram figure brings Iran closer to having enough weapons-grade uranium to produce such a weapon.
The IAEA report estimates that as of February 19, Iran’s stockpile of all enriched uranium was roughly 3.2 metric tons, an increase of 707.4 kilograms.
The report comes as senior diplomats from the original signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, have been meeting in Vienna with Iranian officials since November, trying to reinstate the agreement.
The head of the IAEA, Director-General Rafael Grossi said he will travel to Vienna Saturday “for meetings with senior Iranian officials,” the IAEA said Thursday.
The IAEA said these latest uranium figures, which could not be fully verified because of limits placed on the agency by Iran, indicate that time may be running out for the negotiators.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
For literature lovers in sanction-hit Iran, a new novel has long provided a brief respite from a grinding economic crisis triggered by international pressure imposed over Tehran’s contested nuclear programme.
But now losing yourself in a good book is becoming harder, as cash-strapped publishers struggle because the price of paper is soaring.
“If a 200-page novel sold for 400,000 rials ($1.60) last year, its price today is 1,000,000 rials ($4.10), most of which is the cost of production”, said Reza Hasheminejad, who runs the Ofoq publishing house.
Iran does not produce its own paper pulp for publishing so relies on imports, and while those are not under sanctions, they must be paid for in foreign currency. That means the price of a book depends directly on the fluctuation of Iran’s rial.
So publishers are not only slashing the number of titles published, but also cutting the number of pages of those they do print by shrinking the font size.
“Publishing has suffered a major crisis — which could become existential,” said Emily Amrai, collection director at the Houpa publishing house.
While publishers worldwide face growing challenges to the way people read and consume literature, Iran is facing an extra problem.
The United States, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from a landmark accord to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb — a goal Tehran has always denied pursuing — with Washington then reimposing tough economic sanctions.
“As soon as the US sanctions were reinstated in 2018, the price of paper rose,” Amrai said.
A member of staff prepares publications for transfer to bookshops, at Iran’s Houpa publishing house in Tehran, on Jan. 29, 2022.
‘A miracle’
Long-running negotiations to revive a deal with Iran continue in Austria, but until an international agreement turns the page, the impact of sanctions grows worse.
“The devaluation of our currency against the greenback, the global rise in the price of paper paid in dollars and the increase in the cost of transport — also paid in foreign currency — has plunged publishing into the doldrums,” said Hossein Motevali, owner of Houpa, which specialises in children’s books.
Because book prices are fixed in Iran, profits are pegged to the rapidly fluctuating price of paper.
“Between receiving the manuscript, laying it out, and setting the price of the book, I can lose everything if the price of paper has gone up suddenly,” Hasheminejad said.
“That happens because I’m at the mercy of the fluctuation of the currencies.”
As for the authors, they are paid by the number of the pages in the book, whether they are famous or not.
“Selling books is a miracle today, because the majority of customers belong to the middle class — and given the economic conditions, their priority is to obtain essential goods such as food,” said Hasheminejad. “I really wonder how people still buy books at these prices.”
Bookstores in Iran look similar to shops anywhere in the world. As well as shelves of Iranian writers, popular sellers include translations of foreign works — from 20th century European classics to self-help and psychology books.
Farsi translations of Mary Trump’s tell-all on her uncle Donald Trump, as well as the memoir of former US first lady Michelle Obama, have been recent hits.
‘Shock’
But as the crisis deepens, several small publishing houses have been driven out of business.
“Today, many independent publishers, who have published excellent works, have been eliminated from the market”, said Amrai.
Larger publishing houses have had to adapt to survive.
“We have reduced our profits by as much as possible in order to keep our customers, we have reduced printing and pagination, and publish digital books to avoid paper and reduce costs,” said Hasheminejad.
“But that will only last a year or two, for even the most solid companies.”
So far, books printed before recent spikes in paper costs provided a buffer, but those stocks are running low.
“In a few months, when the books stored in the depots are exhausted, it will be a shock for the customer when they see the new prices,” Hasheminejad warned.
On Enghelab Street, Tehran’s main book market, retired teacher Behjat Mazloumi, 60, already struggles to afford second-hand books.
“I haven’t been able to buy a book for years,” said Mazloumi. “Even street vendors sell books at a very high price.”
The cost rise will have wider impacts too, experts say.
Children in poorer areas where access to literature is already limited will soon find themselves priced out completely, Hasheminejad said.
“Today, we see people in some disadvantaged areas who cannot even communicate properly in Farsi,” he said. “They will certainly experience difficulties.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that a deal lifting sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear activities is still possible but talks need to accelerate, Macron’s office said on Sunday.
France, Germany and Britain, known as the E3, and the United States are trying to save the 2015 Vienna agreement with Iran, but Western diplomats have said negotiations, which have been in their eighth round since Dec. 27, were moving too slowly.
Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.
“The President of the Republic reiterated his conviction that a diplomatic solution is possible and imperative, and stressed that any agreement will require clear and sufficient commitments from all the parties,” the Elysee palace said in a statement after a telephone call with Raisi on Saturday.
“Several months after the resumption of negotiations in Vienna, he insisted on the need to accelerate in order to quickly achieve tangible progress in this framework,” it added.
“He underlined the need for Iran to demonstrate a constructive approach and return to the full implementation of its obligations,” it said.
Macron also asked for the immediate release of Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, re-imprisoned in January, and French tourist Benjamin Briere, who was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years in prison on spying charges.
Using Iranian bank funds freed from American sanctions, South Korea has paid Iran’s $18 million in delinquent dues owed to the United Nations, Seoul said Sunday. The step was apparently approved by Washington to restore Tehran’s suspended voting rights at the world body.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Seoul had paid the sum using Iranian assets frozen in the country after consulting with the United States Treasury — a potential signal of flexibility amid floundering nuclear negotiations.
The ministry said it expected Iran’s voting rights to be restored immediately after their suspension earlier this month for delinquent dues.
The funds had been impounded at a Korean bank under sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump after he withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control must grant a license for these transactions under the American banking sanctions imposed on Iran. The Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the unfrozen funds.
The Biden administration wants to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, which granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Diplomats are now engaged in delicate negotiations to revive the accord in Vienna, although a breakthrough remains elusive as Iran abandons every limitation the deal imposed on its nuclear enrichment. The country now enriches a small amount of to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons grade levels — and spins far more advanced centrifuges than allowed.
Under the United Nations Charter, a nation that owes the previous two full years’ worth of dues loses its voting rights at the General Assembly.
A letter from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres circulated earlier this month revealed that Iran was among several delinquent countries on that list, which also includes Venezuela and Sudan. The General Assembly can make exceptions to the rule, determining that some countries face circumstances “beyond the control of the member.”
According to the secretary-general’s letter, Iran needed to pay a minimum of $18.4 million to restore its voting rights.
Iran also lost its voting rights in January of last year, prompting Tehran to lash out at the U.S. for imposing crushing sanctions that froze billions of dollars in Iranian funds in banks around the world. Tehran regained voting rights last June after making the minimum payment on its dues.
Iran over the past few years has pressured Seoul to release about $7 billion in revenues from oil sales that remain frozen in South Korean banks since the Trump administration tightened sanctions on Iran.
The frozen funds hang in the balance as diplomats struggle to revive the nuclear deal. Senior South Korean diplomats including Choi Jong Kun, the first vice foreign minister, flew to Vienna this month to discuss the fate of the assets with their Iranian counterparts.
