Israel calls for coalition against Iran’s uranium plans
Tehran begins process of increasing its capacity to enrich after US withdrawal from 2015 nuclear deal
A WAR of words between Israel and Iran escalated yesterday after Tehran informed the UN’S nuclear watchdog it was beginning the process of increasing its capacity to enrich uranium. Yisrael Katz, Israel’s intelligence minister, called for a military coalition against Iran if the country were to defy the world powers over the nuclear deal.
Mr Katz told Israeli public radio that if the Iranians did not “surrender” and if they tried to return to unsupervised uranium enrichment, “there should be a clear statement by the president of the US and all of the Western coalition”.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, who is meeting European leaders this week to convince them to abandon the 2015 accord, said the Iranian plan was aimed at producing nuclear weapons to be used against Israel.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said on Monday he had ordered preparations to increase uranium enrichment capacity if the nuclear deal falls apart after the American withdrawal from it last month.
Under the agreement with the US, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, Iran strictly limited uranium enrichment capacity to satisfy the powers that it could not be used to develop atom bombs. In return, the Islamic republic was given a partial lifting of US and international sanctions.
Tehran is permitted to increase its enrichment efficiency by the end of the next decade just before the deal is set to expire. But speeding up preparations now could allow Iran to ramp up production more quickly after that date.
Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, said work had begun on the infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at the Natanz facility. Mr Salehi said it would remain within the framework of the 2015 accord but it marked an increase in the pace of the nuclear programme.
A spokesman for Federica Mogherini, the EU policy chief, said: “Following a first assessment, the announced steps per se are not a violation of the JCPOA [the acronym for the accord].
“However, at this particularly critical juncture, they will not contribute to build confidence in the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme.”
Iranian authorities have said that if the European countries fail to keep the nuclear pact alive, Tehran has several options, including resuming its 20 per cent uranium enrichment.
After meeting with Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, yesterday, Mr Netanyahu said he was not seeking French withdrawal from the agreement as he believed economic pressure would dismantle it.
At a press conference with the Israeli leader, Mr Macron called on “everyone to stabilise the situation and not give into this escalation, which would lead to only one thing: conflict”.