TEHRAN — Iran on Friday offered an extended defense against an accusation attributed to international inspectors that it enriched uranium to 84% purity, with an official calling it part of a “conspiracy” against Tehran.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, any detection of uranium particles enriched to that level is a momentary side effect of trying to reach a finished product of 60% purity — which Tehran already has announced it is producing.
In an interview with Press TV, Kamalvandi dismissed what inspectors may have found as “a particle of an

atom that cannot be seen even under a microscope.” He described Iran’s uranium centrifuge cascades as producing particles at varying purity that later form a final product of 60% enriched uranium.
“It doesn’t matter because the end product is what matters,” Kamalvandi said. “If we really want to enrich 20% more, we will announce it very easily. So it is clear that there is a conspiracy here.”