The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its quarterly report on Iran's civil nuclear program on Wednesday (26/2), and the media responded as usual with hysterical speculation about Iranian nuclear weapons, even though this report is not fundamentally different from recent quarterly reports.

The last report in November put Iran’s stockpile at 182.3 kg of 60% enriched uranium, while the new report puts it at 274.8 kg. The increase in the figure is not surprising, experts say, because Iran does not use 60% enriched uranium for anything and because Iran added to its uranium enrichment centrifuges in November after the United States and the United Kingdom voted to condemn Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The initial nuclear deal with Iran (July 2015) was intended to prevent these stockpiles from growing by having Iran export enriched uranium for further processing into fuel for civilian reactors, but the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, during President Trump’s first term.

Uranium enriched to 60% is still far below weapons-grade uranium, which is considered 90%-95%. Although the media insists that further enrichment is a “technical” matter, it is worth noting that Iran has never attempted to enrich beyond 60%, and in November promised that it would keep all enrichment at 60% or below.

Iran has been enriching to 60% since April 2021, in line with Israeli calls to attack Iran over its enrichment capabilities since then. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for attacks on Iran over its nuclear program since his first term in office in the 1990s, so if the 60% stockpile excuse isn’t there, something else likely is.

The CIA reported in January that there was no evidence that Iran had even decided to try to build a nuclear weapon. Moreover, just a few weeks ago, President Trump dismissed the idea of attacking Iran, saying he did not believe Iran wanted a nuclear weapon. Indeed, the vast majority of media coverage of the new IAEA report says nothing of this, and merely speculates about what Iran might do.

As expected, Fox News went further than other media outlets on this issue, quoting an Iranian general calling for “Operation True Promise 3” that would destroy Tel Aviv, with the intent of implying that this was an Iranian threat to strike Israel with a nuclear weapon.

In fact, Operation True Promise 2 was the name given to a conventional rocket attack on Israel in October in response to previous Israeli attacks, which caused minimal damage. There is no indication that these new comments were anything other than a threat of more conventional rocket strikes.

Since Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious edict in 2003 forbidding the production of nuclear weapons, it is inconceivable that an Iranian official would threaten an attack using a weapon they do not have and are clearly not even trying to acquire.