On June 20, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran is preparing to enrich uranium using the second of two advanced IR-6 centrifuge cascades at the underground Fordow facility. This second cascade is the first to feature modified sub-headers that enable it to easily pivot between different levels of uranium enrichment. Iran has not told the IAEA the level at which the new cascade would enrich uranium but had given previous estimates of 5 to 20 percent purity.
News Briefs
June 16, 2022
On June 16, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Iranian petrochemical firms and China- and United Arab Emirates-based front companies. The sanctioned entities were connected to an Iranian state-owned enterprise and Triliance, a Hong Kong-based company which the United States had already blacklisted for its transactions with Iran. The Treasury Department also sanctioned Chinese national Jeff Gao and Indian national Mohammad Shaheed Ruknooddin Bhore, alleged brokers for Triliance.
-- Agence France-Presse
June 13, 2022
According to an unnamed Iranian official, Iran has concluded that Israel killed two Iranian scientists via poisoning: Ayoub Entezari, an aeronautical engineer at Ghadir Industrial Turbines Company, on May 31 and Kamran Aghamolaei, a geologist, on June 2. Entezari earned a doctorate in aeronautics and reportedly worked on government projects involving airplane turbines and missiles. Israeli news agencies linked Aghamolaei, who studied for a doctorate in geology at Tarbiat Modares University, to the Natanz nuclear facility, but Iranian sources denied that he had any connection to Iran's government.
-- The New York Times
June 13, 2022
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement on June 12 that IRGC Aerospace Force member Ali Kamani died in a "driving accident" while on duty in the Iranian city of Khomein. The following day, Fars News Agency, a news service with ties to the IRGC, announced that Mohammad Abdous, an aerospace worker employed by the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), had died during a mission in Semnan Province on June 12. Iran's state media described the deaths as "martyrdoms," suggesting that Abdous and Kamani had been killed.
-- Al Jazeera
June 10, 2022
On June 8, the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) censured Iran because the country has not offered a credible explanation for the presence of nuclear material at three sites that Iran had failed to declare to the IAEA. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the IAEA, announced a day later that Iran had begun to remove 27 cameras that the IAEA uses to monitor nuclear sites throughout the country, including the Arak heavy water reactor, the Natanz enrichment facility, and other locations in Isfahan and Tehran; Iran had already indicated on June 8 that it shut down two IAEA monitoring devices in Natanz. Grossi said that, after the anticipated removals, about 40 IAEA cameras would remain active in Iran. On June 9, the Agency also reported that Iran intended to add two more cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Natanz, following the in-progress installation of a previously planned IR-6 cascade there.
-- Associated Press
June 10, 2022
On June 7, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), an intelligence agency, released a report describing "a significant increase" in Iran's attempts to obtain equipment and material for its nuclear program. According to the report, the German Customs Investigations Bureau (ZKA) investigated a German citizen in Norderstedt suspected of having assisted with the procurement of laboratory equipment and spectrometers for Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
-- The Jerusalem Post
June 3, 2022
On June 3, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), part of Iran's state media, reported that Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, died during an unspecified incident at his home in the Iranian city of Karaj. The IRNA denied that Esmailzadeh was assassinated. Esmailzadeh's death followed the assassination a month earlier of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, another Qods Force officer whose death Iran blamed on Israel and the United States.
-- Associated Press
May 30, 2022
On May 30, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had accumulated 43.3 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, the approximate amount necessary to build a nuclear weapon if enriched further to 90 percent. The IAEA also said that Iran had failed to provide credible responses to questions from IAEA investigators about traces of uranium found at undeclared sites within Iran. Iranian officials want the IAEA to end its investigation in June and have threatened that a failure to do so could affect ongoing negotiations over its nuclear program. According to the IAEA, Iran also continues to produce advanced centrifuges.
-- The Wall Street Journal
May 28, 2022
On May 28, Iranian state media reported that Iran's regular army maintains a drone base several hundred meters underground in the Zagros Mountains in the vicinity of Kermanshah. The 100 drones reportedly kept there include the Ababil-5 model armed with Qaem-9 air-to-surface missiles, Iranian-designed replicas of U.S.-made Hellfire missiles.
-- Reuters
May 27, 2022
On May 27, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy detained two Greek-flagged oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, the Delta Poseidon and the Prudent Warrior, after accusing the ships of unspecified "violations." The IRGC also detained the tankers' crews, including two Greek citizens. According to the Greek foreign ministry, the vessel was seized in international waters. In April, Greece impounded the Pegas, an Iranian-flagged tanker with a Russian crew, under the authority of European Union sanctions. Greek authorities then allowed the United States to seize the vessel's oil. While Greece later released the Pegas, a news agency affiliated with Iran's security forces suggested that Iran would retaliate with "punitive action."
-- Reuters