The status of Iran's uranium enrichment programme

VIENNA — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Reuters on Tuesday Iran must make a "meaningful" reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to satisfy U.S. demands and end the countries' seven-month war. While it is not clear what exactly he meant, below is a summary of what is known, and not, about the current status of Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which is at the heart of its nuclear infrastructure. What did Iran have before the U.S. and Israel bombed? Israel launched airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities on June 13 of last year, soon followed by the United States. In a 12-day campaign, they destroyed or badly damaged the three uranium-enrichment facilities that were known to be operating in Iran at the time. They argued that Iran was getting too close to being able to produce a nuclear weapon, but the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it had no credible indication of a coordinated weapons programme. Iran was, however, enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, a short step from the roughly 90 percent of weapons grade. The IAEA, which had acces