The global nuclear watchdog said that Iran reinstalled monitoring gear and increased its cooperation with international inspections, even as its engineers continued to enrich uranium closer to weapons-grade.

The report published by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s nuclear program reduces the chances that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be censured when diplomats meet June 6 to discuss the country’s nuclear program.

IAEA inspectors raised concerns about the presence of uranium enriched up to 84% purity in March and criticised Iran for its slow response to investigations. This could lead to a worsening of tensions in the Middle East.

The agency inspectors stated that they had “no further questions” regarding the presence of these highly-enriched particles, and accepted Iran’s explanation.

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Iran is at the heart of a number of geopolitical issues, including its effective suspension of nuclear talks with the world powers, Russia’s support of the war in Ukraine, and the recent seizure by the Iranian Navy of ships near the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

In one of the two reports with restricted access published on Wednesday, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi stated that “some progress has been achieved.” “Iran provided a possible reason for the presence depleted-uranium particle.” Iran has permitted the agency to add some additional surveillance cameras.

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The Iranian stockpiles of uranium purified to 60% purity have increased from 87.5 kilograms in the previous report, which was published at the end February. This is a substantial increase. Stocks of 20%-enriched fuel increased to 470.9 kilograms, up from 435 kilograms.

Iran is adding to its nuclear fuel reserve enriched to 60 percent for the 10th quarter in a row, despite US sanctions that are suffocating. This purity is below the 90% typically used to make weapons but higher than the cap of 300 kilograms with 3.67% purity set by the now defunct nuclear agreement.

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Although Iran has always claimed that its nuclear work is peaceful and non-proliferation, the world powers who negotiated the nuclear agreement with the Persian Gulf country in 2015 did so because they questioned this claim.

In exchange for the lifting of sanctions, the so-called JCPOA restricted Iran’s nuclear activity and imposed an unprecedented level of monitoring. The Trump administration reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 and subsequently retracted from the agreement. Diplomats failed to reinstate its provisions.

Iran’s decision to reinstall monitoring equipment on its nuclear sites is important because it will preserve the data that IAEA monitors would need in order to reconstruct certain nuclear activity, if another agreement were reached with world powers. Inspectors will need to start over when it comes to reconstructing knowledge due the prolonged absence of monitoring equipment at certain Iranian sites.

The report stated that “the agency would not be in a position to reestablish continuity of information with respect to the production of centrifuges and their inventory.” The agency would have to create a new baseline.

IAEA inspections in Iran dropped by about 10% last month, but they remained above the monitoring levels prior to the 2015 nuclear deal. This was revealed in a separate report distributed among diplomats this month.