Iran 'not entirely transparent' on atomic program: UN

Iran is "not entirely transparent" regarding its atomic program, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog says.

The warning came after an official who once led Tehran's program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon "in our hands".

Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, alluded to remarks made at the weekend by Ali Akbar Salehi.

Grossi noted "an accumulation of complexities" in the wider Middle East amid Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran, after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. Tehran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to build several weapons, if it so chooses.

However, US intelligence agencies and others assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program.

Israel long has been believed to have its own nuclear weapons program.

Iran was "presenting a face which is not entirely transparent when it comes to its nuclear activities. Of course this increases dangers," Grossi said.

"There's loose talk about nuclear weapons more and more, including in Iran recently.

"A very high official said, in fact, we have everything, it's disassembled. Well, please let me know what you have."

Grossi did not identify the official, but in an Iranian state television show on Sunday, Salehi said the country had all it needed to build a weapon.

He made a similar comment on Saturday.

"We have it in our hands," he said then.

Since 2022, Iranian officials have spoken openly about something long denied by Tehran as it enriches uranium towards weapons-grade material: the Islamic Republic is ready to build an atomic weapon at will.

That includes Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who told Al Jazeera that Tehran had the ability to build nuclear weapons, but did not intend to do so.

Salehi's comments represent a further escalation.

He served as the head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran under then-president Hassan Rouhani, who reached the 2015 deal with world powers.

The further hardening of Iran's position comes as militias it arms in the region - Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels - have launched attacks targeting Israel.