A report by the UN nuclear watchdog on undeclared nuclear material found at three sites in Iran was “not fair”, the government said on Tuesday.
The report said Iran had not “credibly” answered long-standing questions on the origin of uranium particles found at the three sites.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh spoke to reporters after Monday's report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Unfortunately, this report does not reflect the reality of the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA,” he said. “It's not a fair and balanced report.”
Mr Khatibzadeh said Tehran expects “this path to be corrected”.
It came as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers remain deadlocked after stalling in March.
In it, the IAEA said it still had questions, which were “not clarified” regarding undeclared nuclear material previously found at Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad.
It said its long-running efforts for an Iranian explanation of the presence of nuclear material had so far failed to provide answers.
Iran accused Israel of having a hand in the IAEA findings.
Mr Khatibzadeh said: “It is feared that the pressure exerted by the Zionist regime and some other actors has caused the normal path of agency reports to change from technical to political.”
Earlier, Iran's representative to the IAEA Mohammad Reza Ghaebi said the report “does not reflect Iran's extensive co-operation with the agency”.
“Iran considers this approach unconstructive and destructive to the current close relations and co-operation between the country and the IAEA,” he said.
“The agency should be aware of the destructive consequences of publishing such one-sided reports.”
In a separate report published on Monday, the IAEA estimated that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium had grown to more than 18 times the limit agreed in the troubled 2015 deal between Tehran and major powers.
It “estimated that, as of May 15, 2022, Iran's total enriched stockpile was 3,809.3 kilograms”.
The limit in the 2015 deal was set at 300kg of a specific compound, the equivalent of 202.8kg of uranium.
The agreement provided Iran relief from sweeping economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities designed to prevent it from developing an atomic bomb, an ambition it has always denied.
But the pact was left on life support when then-US president Donald Trump pulled out unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.
One of the main sticking points is Tehran's demand, rejected by Washington, that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military, be removed from the US terrorism blacklist.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
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