“Informed diplomats” told the Wall Street Journal that Iran had resumed production of equipment for advanced centrifuges at a site that the UN nuclear agency had not been able to monitor or access for months.

This raises new concerns among Western diplomats that if Tehran decides to build a secret nuclear weapons program, it will allow Iran to secretly convert parts of the centrifuge, they say, but there is no evidence that it did. . “.

The newspaper quotes its sources as saying that Tehran resumed limited work on an assembly plant in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, in late August, after which it accelerated production and allowed an unknown number of rotors and blowers to be manufactured. For the most advanced centrifuges.

It has been producing large quantities of centrifugal parts since the end of August, and in the opinion of a Western diplomat it has produced parts of at least 170 advanced centrifuges.

Tehran installed centrifuges, the main parts of which were manufactured under contract, at the heavily fortified underground Fordo site.

One diplomat said there was no evidence that the centrifuge parts had been relocated, but that “the greater the number of uncontrolled centrifuges, the greater the risk.”

However, diplomats emphasized that there was no evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear program, and that Iran’s major nuclear sites, including Fordo and Nutans, which produce enriched uranium, would remain under IAEA supervision.

Iran relinquished its commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal after the administration of former US President Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions in November 2018.

Gradually, Iran reduced IAEA’s oversight of several nuclear sites, including Karaj, but agreed to keep the agency’s cameras and recording equipment there and at some other sites.