The United States on Thursday threatened to respond to Iran if it further accelerates its uranium enrichment, hours after the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA warned that Tehran has increased its capacity.
The US State Department issued a statement warning Iran of its response. “The report issued today by the IAEA makes clear that Iran aims to continue expanding its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose. These planned actions further undermine Iran’s claims to the contrary. If Iran implements these plans, we will respond accordingly.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report on Thursday saying Iran has responded to last week's UN nuclear watchdog censure resolution by expanding its uranium enrichment capacity at two underground sites. Iran has rapidly installed two more cascades, or clusters, of uranium-enriching centrifuges at its Fordow site and begun work on more while also planning others at its underground plant at Natanz.
"On 9 and 10 June ... Iran informed the Agency that eight cascades each containing 174 IR-6 centrifuges would be installed over the next 3-4 weeks in Unit 1 of FFEP (Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant)," the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report sent to member states on Thursday said.
"On 11 June 2024, the Agency verified at FFEP that Iran had completed the installation of IR-6 centrifuges in two cascades in Unit 1. Installation of IR-6 centrifuges in four additional cascades was ongoing," the report said, referring to one of one of Iran's most advanced centrifuge models.
The IAEA Board passed a resolution a week ago calling on Iran to step up cooperation with the agency and reverse its recent decision to bar visits by inspectors.
The resolution was tabled by Britain, France and Germany, which the United States reportedly opposed but later endorsed. Only Russia and China voted against the measure.
The US statement further stated: Iran must cooperate with the IAEA without further delay to fully implement its legally binding safeguards obligations. Until Iran does so, the IAEA Board of Governors will continue to hold Iran to account. We remain in close coordination with our partners and allies and are prepared to continue to increase pressure on Iran should its non-cooperation with the IAEA continue.
Ali Shamkhani, a senior aide to Iran's Supreme Leader, who has been reportedly put in charge of Iran's nuclear negotiations, had warned that Iran would deliver a "serious and effective response" if European nations pursue the resolution.
Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60% purity in the past two years has no credible civilian use and is viewed as a steppingstone to 90% weapons grade enrichment. The time needed to produce the fissile material for a bomb by further enriching from 60 to 90 percent is just a few weeks, putting Iran in the position of an early nuclear threshold country.
The 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers had capped enrichment to less than 5% for more than a decade, but former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement known as the JCPOA in 2018 and imposed sanctions on Iran. He argued that that 2015 deal was weak and had a limited restraining life span, demanding a tougher agreement.
Iran’s response during the remaining two years of the Trump term was relatively limited, increasing enrichment to just 5%. However, after President Joe Biden’s election and his declaration to strive for the restoration of the Obama-era agreement, Iran hardened its position, demanding the lifting of US sanctions and accelerating enrichment first to 20% in early 2021, and then 60% later.
Multi-lateral negotiations lasting 18 months to restore the JCPOA failed once Russia invaded Ukraine and Iran began supplying drones to Moscow in mid-2022.
In October 2022, during Iran's nationwide protests, one of the country's largest independent anti-poverty charities reported that many minors were recruited to attack protesters in exchange for essential food supplies. Over 500 members and supporters of Imam Ali's Popular Student Relief Society (IAPSRS) stated that authorities employed children as part of their forces against anti-government protesters.
During the peak of the uprising, as the Islamic Republic’s repressive forces faced fatigue and shortages, it became increasingly evident that impoverished children were recruited to suppress the protests. Images of children, some not even wearing shoes and teenagers in anti-riot uniforms of the Basij and Revolutionary Guards surfaced on social media, sparking widespread outrage among users.
At the same time, the Association for the Protection of Children's Rights issued a statement condemning the use of children to suppress street protests, as well as the killing and arrest of children and teenagers during the nationwide uprising in Iran.
Garbage Collecting Mafia and Child Labor in Iran
Many working children are taken advantage of by organized crime groups in the streets to do dirty and odd jobs for small compensation.
Speaking at a meeting in Tehran on the role of public awareness in ending child labor, held on the eve of the World Day Against Child Labor, Farshid Yazdani, a children's rights activist, criticized Iranian authorities for wrongly emphasizing that child laborers are involved in "gangs and mafia." He stated, "Our studies show that the maximum level of coordination is that child laborers do these jobs [garbage collecting], as a family," as reported by Hammihan on Tuesday.
In this meeting, Reza Shafakhah, the secretary of the children's rights committee of the human rights working group of the National Union of Bar Associations, emphasized that child labor is a phenomenon that does not have a mafia, but garbage collection has a mafia.
Shafakhah added: "Even if it is a mafia, it still does not reduce the duties of government organizations."
Inaccurate Government Statistics of Child Laborers in Iran
In another part of this meeting, Yazdani discussed the government's varying and inaccurate statistics on the number of child laborers and stated: "In 2018, we identified about 4,800 garbage-picking children in the city of Tehran.
At the meeting, Mohammad Saleh Noghrehkar, head of human rights at the Bar Association, cited former Minister Ali Rabiei's claim at a Child Labor Convention in Brazil during Hassan Rouhani's presidency that "We don't have child scavengers in Iran." Noghrehkar countered, noting that the IAPSRS had identified 120,000 child scavengers that same year.
Shafakhah further stated that there are 19 million marginalized people in Iran and emphasized that the latest official number of working children is "three million."
According to him, IAPSRS had 44 centers that covered 6,000 children all over the country before its dissolution.
Iran’s Crackdown on NGOs and Children’s Rights Activists
In 2020 Iranian security forces detained the founder and director of IAPSRS Sharmin Meymandinejad and two of the managers of IAPSRS following a complaint filed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Susequently, the Ministry of Interior of the Rouhani government filed a complaint with the judiciary, requesting the dissolution of this organization by the judicial authorities.
The court hearing of the IRGC complaint was held on 2 March 2021, and in a rare move, a day later, on 3 March 2021, the court issued a ruling to dissolve IAPSRS.
The Rouhani government's Ministry of Interior requested the dissolution of this organization, citing accusations such as "issuing political statements during critical times in the country and engaging in anti-religious activities."
Shafakhah, heading the legal team of IAPSRS, stated that the indictment presented to the court regarding IAPSRS and its members began with the assertion that "NGOs are seeking a velvet and colorful revolution."
In the indictment, civil activists were referred to as "informers of international organizations" because "in international forums and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, they provide statistics about Iran's social harms that lead to the approval of resolutions against Iran."