Iran's stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18 months as high-stakes talks were underway – and despite the Obama administration’s claim the program had been "frozen."
The spike was included in a report issued last week by by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations organization that monitors compliance with nuclear treaties.
The New York Times reports the agency’s inspectors reported finding no evidence Iran was hurrying to build a nuclear bomb, and said Tehran had halted work on facilities that could have given it bomb-making capabilities.
But the increase creates a daunting challenge for President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry as a deadline for completion of a nuclear agreement looms at the end of June: Convincing Congress and U.S. allies that Iran will shrink its stockpile by by 96 percent while it continues to produce new material and hasn't made a dent in its current stockpile.
"From the U.S. perspective, it’s obviously less than ideal," Richard Nephew, an Iran specialist at Columbia University, told the Times.
A major element of the deal, if it's completed, permits Iran to maintain a stockpile of about 660 pounds of nuclear fuel, less than would be needed to make a single weapon, the Times reports.
And that means Iran would have to get rid of more than nine tons of its stockpile in a matter of months, the Times notes.
Administration officials haven't responded publicly to the atomic energy agency’s report, the Times says. But officials told the newspaper the Iranians understood that under a final agreement they would commit to giving up almost all of their fuel and maintaining a small stockpile for 15 years.
"How are they going to do it? We’re not certain," one senior American official conceded, The Times reports. "It’s their problem, not ours. But it’s a problem."
The numbers in the atomic energy agency's report show Iran has continued to enrich uranium aggressively, even though it knew it was not meeting its goals of converting its stockpile into reactor rods.
It's unclear how much of the increase was politically motivated, and how much is "because adding to the stockpile has proved easier than eliminating it," The Times reports.
The president will decide when to lift sanctions against Iran, but if he lifts even a few before Iran has destroyed or shipped all but the last small amount of uranium, "he might lose leverage in ensuring that Iran complies with the rest of its pledge," the Times reports.
"On the other hand, waiting too long risks unraveling a deal, especially if ordinary Iranians see no economic benefits from cooperation," the Times reports.
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