Iran’s nuclear chief says Tehran already built new enrichment site

DUBAI - A third enrichment site that Iran announced as a counter-measure to a UN nuclear watchdog resolution has already been built and is ready to operate when equipped with machinery, the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation Mohammad Eslami told state media on Thursday. 

The UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday and it announced counter-measures, as an Iranian official said a "friendly country" had warned it of a potential Israeli attack.

US and Iranian officials will hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran's accelerating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday.

But security fears have risen since US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday American personnel were being moved out of the region because "it could be a dangerous place" and that Tehran would not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. His decision to remove some personnel from the region comes at a brittle and highly sensitive juncture in the oil-producing Middle East, where security has already been destabilised by spillover effects of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that began in October 2023.

Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if the nuclear talks do not progress, and in an interview released on Wednesday said he had become less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium. The Islamic Republic wants a lifting of the U.S. sanctions imposed on the country since 2018.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's policy-making Board of Governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN Security Council.

The step is the culmination of several stand-offs between the Vienna-based IAEA and Iran since Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that accord unravelled.

After the IAEA decision, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Tehran's actions undermine the global Non-Proliferation Treaty and posed an imminent threat to regional and international security and stability.

Iran is a signatory to the NPT while Israel is not and is believed to have the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal.

MARKET REACTION

Markets absorbed the developments in a volatile Middle East.

Oil prices initially rose after Trump's announcement but later eased.

But shares in European airlines, travel companies and hotel chains were among the biggest fallers in morning trade as investors worried the heightened tensions would knock demand for travel and higher oil prices would add to costs.

"Clearly it is Iran that is at the centre of this and the possibility that you see a strike from the US or Israel," said Paul McNamara, a director of emerging market debt for investment firm GAM. "There is a lot of scope for things to get a whole lot worse if we do see a military strike and a sustained attack."

Foreign energy companies were continuing their operations as usual, a senior Iraqi official overseeing operations in southern oilfields told Reuters on Thursday.

The Dubai-based Emirates airline said it had made no changes to operations, but was monitoring the situation in the region.

Iran's response to the IAEA resolution was among several countermeasures being taken, Iranian state TV said.

The IAEA official said Tehran had given no further details on the planned new enrichment sites, such as its location to enable monitoring by UN nuclear inspectors.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for Iran's atomic energy organisation, told state TV that Tehran had informed the IAEA of two countermeasures including "the upgrading of centrifuges in Fordow (enrichment plant) from first to sixth generation, which will significantly boost the production of enriched uranium".

Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for reactor fuel or, at higher levels of refinement, for atomic bombs. Iran says its nuclear energy programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Reiterating Iran's stance that it will not abandon the right to enrichment as an NPT member, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that rising Middle East tensions served to "influence Tehran to change its position about its nuclear rights."

'POTENTIAL ISRAELI STRIKE'

The Iranian official said a "friendly" country had alerted Tehran to a potential strike on its nuclear sites by Israel.

Tehran prefers diplomacy to resolve the nuclear issue but its armed forces are fully ready to respond to any military attack, the official said.

Iranian state media reported that Iran's military had begun drills earlier than planned to focus on "enemy movements".

Iranian retaliation for any Israeli attack will be "more forceful and destructive" than in the past, Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told state media on Thursday.

Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel last year after Israeli forces bombed Tehran's consulate in Damascus, and Israel replied with missile strikes in Iran and Syria - the first such direct attacks between the region's most entrenched enemies.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad head David Barnea will travel to Oman to meet US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff ahead of the US-Iranian talks in another bid to clarify Israel's position, Israeli media reported on Thursday.