International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi addresses the media, after a Board of Governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters, in Vienna, Austria, June 15, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Leonhard Foeger / File.

i24 News – The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency called Iran’s uranium enrichment program “very concerning” in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday.

Iran was enriching uranium at purity levels that “only countries making bombs are reaching,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the newspaper.

Grossi called it “very serious” that the Islamic Republic is enriching at 60 percent, calling that level “almost weapons grade” with commercial enrichment only at two or three percent. Iran says that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and will be used as an energy source to power the country.

He said it was Iran’s “sovereign right” to develop its program but added: “This is a degree that requires a vigilant eye.”

The comments came as Iran and the United States restart indirect talks in Vienna about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that former US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 but the administration of current US President Joe Biden is attempting to bring back.

Iran and the IAEA are extending a recently expired monitoring agreement by a month, both sides said on Monday, avoiding a collapse that could have pitched wider talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal into crisis.