Iran is brushing off a United Nations report saying that its weapons-grade stockpile of enriched uranium has increased by 50 percent since February as it tries to play out a long game to end international sanctions and openly restart its nuclear enrichment program.

An International Atomic Energy Agency report released Saturday stated that as of May 17 Iran has just over 900 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. That’s up from 295 pounds reported in February.  Iran is the only non-nuclear state to have this kind of stockpile, according to the atomic energy agency, which detailed years of Iran’s noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 

The report raises major concerns among western allies who have a small window this summer to reinstate expiring multilateral sanctions that have been suspended since 2015. 

“Those sanctions will expire in October unless the West acts,” the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ deputy director for nonproliferation and biodefense, Andrea Stricker, tells the New York Sun. “The Iranians really prize the sunset of those sanctions because it gives them the legal right to enrich uranium and it frees them from military and missile embargoes and their ability to trade in those goods.”

Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent to be used in an atomic bomb, but once 60 percent enrichment is achieved, it’s a small step to get to 90 percent. It takes 92.6 pounds of enriched uranium to build one nuclear bomb.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araqchi, said on Sunday that the agency’s report is “politically motivated and repeats baseless accusations.” He added that uranium enrichment is essential for his nation’s economic and energy independence. 

“Just because (other nations) are concerned, they do not have the right to deprive the Iranian people and future generations of Iran of a right that international law has granted them. This has been and is one of our important axes in pursuing the nuclear debate, and nuclear energy is the indisputable right of the Iranian people,” Mr. Araqchi said after meeting with Omani officials acting as an intermediary between America and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Trump withdrew from the suspended sanctions program in 2018 and imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran. Though he has been negotiating with Iran through five rounds of proxy meetings so far in his current term, he has repeatedly threatened to launch airstrikes on Iran if it does not end its nuclear program. 

The president has the support of a majority of Americans, according to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll that showed 77 percent of likely American voters across political affiliations say they are concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In the poll taken May 19-21, 57 percent said they support the idea of taking military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program while 30 percent oppose it.  Thirteen percent said they were unsure.

Ms. Stricker said that the Islamic Republic’s goals in its nuclear program are three-fold — to delay the return of sanctions that have eviscerated the economy; to ward off bubbling internal unrest from high inflation, oil sanctions, and currency devaluation; and to fulfill Tehran’s ideological fantasies of attacking America and Israel. 

“The United States is one of Iran’s key adversaries. You know, ‘Death to America, Death to Israel,’ ‘Big Satan, Little Satan,’” she said. “Iran’s whole strategy is delay, ward off pressure and try to give Trump something that looks like a win for him but is actually going to preserve their nuclear-making capabilities and their secret nuclear weapons efforts.”