Iran has for the first time directly confirmed an accusation by international inspectors that it has enriched uranium to 84 percent purity, which would bring the Islamic Republic closer than ever to weapons-grade material, the Associated Press reported.

The admission, which appeared on a news website linked to the highest levels of the Iranian theocracy, renewed pressure on the West to tackle Tehran's program, which was limited by the 2015 nuclear deal from which America unilaterally withdrew in 2018. , writes BTA.

Israel's recently reinstated prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has threatened to take military action similar to Israel's earlier bombing of Iraq and Syria's nuclear facilities.

But while those attacks did not break out into war, Iran now has an arsenal of ballistic missiles, drones and other weapons that Tehran and its allies have already used in the region, the AP said.

Bloomberg: Iran Enriches Uranium to Nuclear Weapon Level

The admission came from Nour News, a website linked to Iran's Supreme National Security Council, controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Noor News' comments came after days of confused comments from Iran, which did not directly acknowledge an accusation by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran had enriched up to 84%.

On Sunday, Bloomberg first reported that inspectors had found particles of uranium enriched to 84%.

The IAEA did not deny the information, saying only that "the IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of the agency's latest verification activities."

The IAEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Noor News publication, AP said.

It was not immediately clear where the enrichment of uranium to 84% purity took place, although the IAEA said it had discovered two cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Iran's underground Fordo site, "connected in a manner that differs significantly from that of work declared by Iran to the agency in November last year".

Iran is known to enrich uranium at Fordow to 60% purity, a level that non-proliferation experts already say has no civilian use for Tehran.

Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90%.

Although the IAEA's director-general has warned that Iran already has enough uranium to produce "several" nuclear bombs if it chooses, it will likely take months more to build a weapon and possibly miniaturize it to deploy on a rocket.

Iran

Uranus