The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, announced on Monday that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium to a level just above that required to make weapons, according to Reuters.

The director of the United Nations agency told Reuters, “Iran continues to enrich uranium beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use, despite United Nations pressure to stop this.”

Grossi briefed the European Union foreign ministers on these developments, and revealed his intention "to visit Tehran next month for the first time in a year to end the drift away."

The UN official added that although the pace of uranium enrichment has slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran is still enriching uranium at a high rate of about seven kilograms per month with a purity of 60 percent.

60 percent enrichment brings the uranium close to weapons grade, and it is not necessary for commercial use in nuclear energy production. Iran denies seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, but

 No other country has enriched to this level without producing these weapons, according to Reuters.

Under the 2015 agreement with world powers, Iran can enrich uranium to only 3.67 percent, but after the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on it, Iran violated the nuclear restrictions on it.

In the period between June and November of last year, Iran slowed the pace of enrichment to 3 kilograms per month, but it jumped again to a rate of 9 kilograms at the end of the year, as the International Atomic Energy Agency previously reported.

Grossi said: “This deceleration and acceleration is like a cycle for me that does not change the basic trend, which is the trend of continued increase in the stock of highly enriched uranium.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency warned at the end of 2023 that Tehran already had enough material to make three nuclear bombs if it now enriched the material by 60 percent.