Iranian video issues threat on uranium
Leader’s aide says regime set to top enrichment limit
TEHRAN, Iran — A top aide to Iran’s supreme leader said the Islamic Republic is ready to enrich uranium beyond the level set by Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, just ahead of today’s deadline that it set for Europe to offer new terms to the accord.
A video message by Ali Akbar Velayati included him saying that “Americans directly and Europeans indirectly violated the deal.” European parties to the deal have yet to offer a way for Iran to avoid the sweeping economic sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump since he pulled the U.S. out of the accord a year ago, especially those targeting its crucial oil sales.
All this comes as the U.S. has sent thousands of troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Mideast. Mysterious oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz, attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia and Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone have raised fears of a wider conflict engulfing the region.
In the video, available Saturday on a website for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Velayati said that increasing enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels was “unanimously agreed upon by every component of the establishment.”
“We will show reaction exponentially as much as they violate it. We reduce our commitments as much as they reduce it,” said Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs. “If they go back to fulfilling their commitments, we will do so as well.” Europe is struggling to salvage the 2015 accord.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke for more than an hour Saturday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and said they are trying to find a way to resume international dialogue with Iran.
Macron reinforced his concerns about the risk of a further weakening of the nuclear pact and its consequences, according to a statement from the French leader’s office Saturday.
“Beyond the announced July 7 deadline, the president has agreed with his Iranian counterpart to explore by July 15 the conditions for a resumption of dialogue between all parties,” according to the statement.
While Macron called for talks, Annegret Kramp-Kar-renbauer, the leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, said that if the country decides to step up its uranium enrichment, European leaders may need to consider sanctions.
Separately, Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and two other senior government officials will announce new changes to the Islamic Republic’s compliance to the nuclear deal at a news conference today.
Araghchi, government spokesman Ali Rabiee and Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, will announce the new measures at 10:30 a.m. Iranian time, Fars reported.
‘WORRISOME STEP’
Under the atomic accord, Iran agreed to enrich uranium to no more than 3.67%, which is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons, but the nuclear deal sought to prevent that as a possibility by limiting enrichment and Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 661 pounds.
On Monday, Iran and United Nations inspectors acknowledged that it had broken the stockpile limit. Combining that with increasing its enrichment levels narrows the one-year window experts believe Iran would need to have enough material to build a nuclear weapon, if it chose to do so.
“This would be a very worrisome step that could substantially shorten the time Iran would need to produce the material needed for nuclear weapons,” said Miles Pomper, a senior fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ James Marin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “Both Iran and the Trump administration should be looking for ways to de-escalate the crisis, rather than exacerbate it.”
It remains unclear to what level Iran will choose to increase its uranium enrichment. However, Velayati in his remarks made reference to 5% enrichment.
“For Bushehr nuclear reactor we need 5% of enrichment and it is a completely peaceful goal,” he said. Bushehr, Iran’s only nuclear power plant, is now running on imported fuel from Russia that’s closely monitored by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran stopped producing uranium enriched above 5% in January 2014 during negotiations for the nuclear deal.
Outside of Bushehr, higher-enriched uranium could be used for naval ships and submarines, something Iran has said it would want to pursue. Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in 2016 that nuclear power plants for naval vessels need uranium enriched to at least 5%.
The U.S. said its ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Jackie Wolcott, had requested a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss its “latest, concerning report on the Iran regime’s nuclear program.” That meeting is planned for Wednesday.
Iran’s diplomatic mission to Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, called the U.S. move “a sad irony” as the U.S. had unilaterally withdrawn from the deal a year ago.
Meanwhile Saturday, the hard-line Kayhan newspaper demanded revenge over the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar that had been heading to Syria.
Authorities in Gibraltar said they seized the Grace 1, believed to be carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil, over European Union sanctions on Syria — though Spain said the seizure came at the request of the U.S.
“Seizure of U.K. oil tanker is the only way to confront pirates of the Queen,” Kayhan said in a front-page headline, echoing a suggestion Friday by a former Revolutionary Guard chief.
It remains unclear to what level Iran will choose to increase its uranium enrichment. However, Velayati in his remarks made reference to 5% enrichment.