RIYADH (Reuters) – The head of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog said on Thursday that Iran was still at the starting stage of creating a uranium enrichment plant and that concerns stem more from its motivations than the scale of production.

“There are various definitions of industrial scale production. Iran is still at the starting stage of creating a uranium enrichment plant,” Mohamed Elbaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Riyadh.

“The concern does not only stem from Iran conducting industrial scale production but it is rather Iran’s motivations behind (enriching uranium) before it has nuclear reactors for electric power generation that need enriched uranium.”