By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog has found&nbsp;uranium&nbsp;enriched&nbsp;to&nbsp;84%&nbsp;in&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;- very close to weapons&nbsp;grade&nbsp;-&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;said on Monday, while the watchdog said that it was in talks with Tehran about recent findings there.
Iran&nbsp;has been enriching&nbsp;uranium&nbsp;to up to 60% purity since April 2021. Three months ago, it started enriching to 60% at a second site, Fordow, which is dug into a mountain. Weapons&nbsp;grade&nbsp;is around 90%.
Two&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;told Reuters the International Atomic Energy Agency, which inspects&nbsp;Iran's nuclear facilities, had detected&nbsp;uranium&nbsp;enriched&nbsp;to&nbsp;84%, confirming an initial report late on Sunday by Bloomberg News.
"The issue is whether it was a blip in the reconfigured cascades or deliberate. The agency has asked&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;for an explanation," one of the&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;told Reuters.
Earlier this month, the&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;criticised&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;for failing to inform it of a "substantial" change to the interconnections between the two cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges enriching&nbsp;uranium&nbsp;to up to 60% at Fordow. Several&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;said the change meant&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;could quickly switch to a higher enrichment level.
Those rearranged cascades are the ones the first diplomat was referring to.
The United States in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;and major powers that had lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.
Iran&nbsp;responded to the reimposition of U.S. sanctions by breaching those restrictions and going well beyond them, to the point that&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;chief Rafael Grossi has said the deal is now an "empty shell".
STILL NO&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;REPORT
Prospects for reviving the deal are dim,&nbsp;diplomats&nbsp;say, with tensions between&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;and the West high over protests in&nbsp;Iran, the war in Ukraine, and&nbsp;Iran's continued nuclear advances eroding the time it would need to produce a nuclear&nbsp;bomb&nbsp;if it chose to.&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;denies having such intentions.
"The&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;is aware of recent media reports relating to&nbsp;uranium&nbsp;enrichment levels in&nbsp;Iran," the&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;said on Twitter on Sunday. "The&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;is discussing with&nbsp;Iran&nbsp;the results of recent Agency verification activities and will inform the&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;Board of Governors as appropriate."
The&nbsp;IAEA, which inspects&nbsp;Iran's nuclear facilities, flags significant developments in&nbsp;Iran's activities either in ad hoc reports to the 35-nation Board of Governors or regular quarterly ones issued before board meetings.
Diplomats&nbsp;said on Monday that the&nbsp;IAEA&nbsp;so far had not issued any such report. The next quarterly Board of Governors meeting begins on Monday, March 6, and quarterly reports are usually issued in the week before a meeting.
"So far, we have not made any attempt to enrich above 60%. The presence of particles above 60% enrichment does not mean production with an enrichment above 60%," the spokesperson for&nbsp;Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Monday, according to the official IRNA News agency.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Bernadette Baum)

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IAEA finds uranium enriched to 84% in Iran, near bomb-grade -diplomats