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Iran boosted stockpile of near weapons-grade fuel by 50% since late October, according to a United Nations report, amid U.S. silence on talks

VIENNA—Iran has sharply increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in recent weeks, according to a confidential United Nations report, as Tehran amasses a critical raw material for atomic weapons.

The increase in Iran’s holdings of uranium enriched to 60%, or nearly weapons grade, gives it enough to produce six nuclear weapons.

Iran is now producing enough fissile material in a month for one nuclear weapon, according to the report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Tehran’s strides come as the country has indicated an openness to negotiating with the U.S. on limits to its nuclear ambitions. The Trump administration has said it would return to a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran but that it also wants to negotiate a nuclear deal.

Still, there hasn’t been significant direct contact between the two sides since President Trump took office. And Iran has said it won’t negotiate directly with Washington while under maximum pressure sanctions.

In an interview Wednesday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, warned that as Iran’s nuclear activities advance, “the problem becomes bigger, not smaller,” and urged Tehran and Washington to engage. “It is problematic that we are not moving” on talks, he said. “We believe it is necessary to move to action.”

The U.N. report said Tehran had amassed around 275 kilograms of 60% highly enriched uranium as of Feb. 8, up from 182 kilograms in late October. That’s a 50% jump in 15 weeks. The fuel could be converted to 90% weapons-grade material in days.

Iran, which started producing 60% enriched uranium in 2021, has expanded its production since early December, after facing a censure resolution from Europe and the U.S. at the IAEA.

“The significantly increased production and accumulation of high enriched uranium by Iran, the only nonnuclear weapon state to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern,” the IAEA said in its report.

The head of Iran’s atomic agency, Mohammad Eslami, said on Wednesday that Iran was cooperating with IAEA inspectors and that the agency should avoid putting pressure on Iran.

Tehran has made large advances on its nuclear work since Trump was last in office—when he pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which placed strict but temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

In 2019, Iran began revving up its nuclear program and officials from the U.S. and elsewhere now believe Tehran could develop some kind of nuclear weapon within a few months. Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful civilian purposes.

U.S. intelligence reports in December said Iran hadn’t made a decision to build a nuclear weapon but there was a growing risk it might do so. U.S. officials have said that Tehran is working on research that could help it build an atomic bomb.

Trump said this month Iran is “too close” to having nuclear weapons. In January, French President Emmanuel Macon said Tehran’s program was “close to the point of no return.”

The Trump administration has tightened economic pressure on Iran, vowing to slash Tehran’s oil sales to China through a stricter implementation of existing sanctions. The Treasury Department this week announced new sanctions on ships and people dealing in Iranian oil.

Iran is at its most vulnerable position in years after its largest regional militia, Hezbollah, was badly damaged in a war with Israel, which in October also took out Tehran’s most advanced air-defense systems.

Israel has warned it would take military action if Iran moves toward a bomb. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told Politico this week that time was running out to pursue a diplomatic path.

European countries have started a process that by October could lead them to reimpose all international sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Tehran has said if that happens it will quit the international treaty banning countries from pursuing nuclear weapons. The only country to have done that is North Korea, which subsequently built nuclear weapons.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, earlier this month publicly warned against negotiations with the U.S., but Iranian officials have told their European counterparts they are keen for talks.

“This confluence of pressure creates a window of opportunity to push for a nuclear and regional deal on Trump’s terms,” said Michael Singh, former senior director for the Middle East at the U.S. National Security Council. “But that window won’t last forever—Iran is closer than ever to nuclear weapons.”

Dan Shapiro, a senior Biden administration Pentagon official who was part of the Iran nuclear negotiation team, said Trump’s efforts at rapprochement with Russia could potentially lead to a situation where Washington could get help from Moscow on containing Iran’s nuclear work.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Tehran on Tuesday to meet with his Iranian counterpart. He met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, in Saudi Arabia last week.

Shapiro said Washington needed to coordinate closely with Europe on the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, saying this could be endangered as “a yawning gulf has opened up between them and Washington on Ukraine.”

The 3M spinoff said this week it is selling its filtration unit

Activist investor Trian Fund Management plans to push Solventum SOLV 0.63%increase; green up pointing triangle to separate more of its businesses after the company’s $4.1 billion deal to sell its filtration unit, according to people familiar with the matter.

Nelson Peltz’s firm has held a roughly 5% stake in Solventum since the middle of last year. Solventum, which sells healthcare products, was spun out from 3M in April 2024.

Trian believes the company should separate its dental products and software businesses and focus more on its medical and surgical unit, the people said. The firm wants Solventum management to slash costs in its businesses before a potential sale or spinoff.

Solventum had said Tuesday it agreed to sell its purification and filtration unit to Thermo Fisher Scientific. Executives have said previously that the company was working on fine-tuning its portfolio, including by getting out of businesses that didn’t fit its strategy.

Trian plans to release a statement Wednesday hailing the deal as a step in the right direction, the people said.

Trian will say the deal appeared to validate its belief that Solventum’s costs are too high, weighing on profits, according to people familiar with the matter. In its release, Thermo Fisher said the deal would result in cost savings from day one.

Trian had said in an open letter to Solventum shareholders in January that selling noncore businesses would allow the company to pay down debt and invest in growth.

Trian has pointed out that the company’s margins and organic sales growth have stalled after its spinoff from 3M. Typically, spun-off businesses are expected to grow faster as stand-alone companies.

Trian, founded by Peltz and Peter May in 2005, is coming off a bruising proxy battle at Disney last year. The firm pushed for board seats at the entertainment giant, but lost a shareholder vote.

Solventum is set to report fourth-quarter results Thursday and has scheduled an investor day for next month.

Broadcaster accuses company of failing to do enough to tackle piracy, often involving its Fire Stick TV devices

Sky has criticised Amazon for failing to do enough to tackle a crisis in sports broadcast piracy that often involves the use of its Fire Stick TV devices, which it estimates make up about half of illegal streaming of Premier League football in the UK alone.

Nick Herm, chief operating officer at Sky, said piracy was costing the industry “hundreds of millions of dollars” and called on Amazon to work with the UK-based media group to crack down on illegal streaming.

He said that Fire Sticks accounted for “probably about half of the piracy” in the UK. Amazon is a Uefa Champions League rights holder that until recently also streamed some Premier League games.

“If you speak to friends and colleagues, [or] you watch football, people will know that you can get jail-broken Fire Sticks, and you can access pirated services on Fire Sticks,” he told the FT’s Business of Football conference.

“Jail-breaking” a Fire Stick allows people to install third-party streaming apps that can offer free movies and sports.

Tom Burrows, global head of rights at DAZN Group, the sports broadcaster, described piracy as “almost a crisis for the sports industry”, telling the conference: “There’s an argument to say that you can’t get exclusive rights any more because piracy is so bad.”

Executives at Sky said the use of Fire Stick TV devices in piracy was so prevalent it had become synonymous with the illegal act. Football fans at some grounds had taken to chanting “we’ve got our Fire Sticks” during games, they added.

Herm said: “There are football fans who literally have shirts printed out that say Fire Sticks on them . . . With some of the tech giants, Amazon in particular, we do not get enough engagement to address some of those problems, where people are buying these devices in bulk.”

Executives warn that sports rights will suffer as a result of piracy, with widespread illegal streaming undermining the value at which broadcasters would be prepared to pay to secure exclusive coverage. 

Media analyst Claire Enders said piracy was “the number one problem of premium football . . . every market is plagued by piracy”.

She added: “I don’t know of any broadcaster in Europe that is fully able to monetise sports because of piracy.”

In the UK, Sky is working with the police and rights holders at the Premier League to try to tackle piracy.

But Herm said Amazon had not been helpful enough in addressing the problem. The broadcaster wants Amazon to lock down or impose controls and restrictions on the use of “side-loaded” unofficial apps on the devices.

Amazon said it was “committed to providing customers with a high-quality streaming experience while actively promoting a streaming landscape that respects intellectual property rights and encourages the responsible consumption of content”.

Amazon co-founded the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s content protection coalition that aims to shut down global piracy operations, and has introduced a policy prohibiting the sale of illicit streaming devices in its marketplace as well as on apps that infringe the rights of third parties.

It added: “On Fire TV, we’ve always encouraged our customers to use legal channels for accessing content and have included on-device warnings informing customers of the risks associated with installing or using apps from unknown sources.”

US president warns levies will target auto sector and be applied ‘generally’

Donald Trump said he had decided to slap 25 per cent tariffs on imports from the EU, as he lashed out at the bloc, saying it “was formed to screw the United States”.

“We have made a decision and we’ll be announcing it very soon. It’ll be 25 per cent,” the US president said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Trump said the levies would be applied “generally”, though he specifically mentioned that they would hit car imports.

The euro fell slightly following Trump’s comments, trading 0.2 per cent lower against the dollar at $1.049.