Iran to boost enrichment beyond nuclear deal limit
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will increase its level of uranium enrichment starting Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani said, a step described as the country’s second phase in scaling back its adherence to the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.
The deal capped enrichment to 3.67%. That level is sufficient for civilian nuclear activities — including electricity generation and medical research — but not enough to produce a bomb.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Rouhani said Iran would begin exceeding the limit.
“On July 7, our uranium enrichment ceiling will no longer be 3.67%,” Rouhani said at the meeting.
Experts say that in order for uranium to become “weaponsgrade” it needs to be enriched to 90% or higher.
President Donald Trump tore into Iran, saying in a tweet Wednesday: “Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before!”
Rouhani’s remarks were in keeping with a strategy outlined by Tehran last month, when it said it would begin violating the terms of the deal in two parts — unless the deal’s other signatories began offering relief from crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions. The first part was achieved Monday when Iranian media and international nuclear inspectors reported that the country’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium had passed the 300 kilogram limit set by the deal.
The second part, as reiterated by Rouhani on Wednesday, is to push its enrichment level beyond the ceiling set in the deal.
The United States pulled out of the deal last year and re-imposed oil and financial sanctions. It has continued to ratchet up the pressure on the Islamic Republic, including moving military assets into the region.
Iran has lashed out in recent days at Europe, saying its efforts to salvage the deal have not been nearly enough despite repeated reassurances there would be an economic payoff to sticking with it.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain as well as the EU’s top foreign policy representative called on Iran not to abandoned the deal, however tattered it may be.
“We were and are 100% committed to the nuclear deal ... but it has to be reciprocal,” Rouhani said Wednesday, demanding “a return to logic, laws, recognized agreements and U.N. resolutions.”
Iran agreed to end the standoff over its nuclear program in July 2015 with a far-reaching deal that was meant to prevent the country from building nuclear weapons and end its international isolation, including the lifting of sanctions that had taken a toll on Iran’s economy and people.
But in May 2018, Trump pulled out, sending the pact with Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China into a tailspin.
Trump gave several reasons for leaving, including what he said are inadequate tools to check on Iran’s nuclear program and its ability to enrich uranium to a higher grade in the long run. But above all he criticized the pact as doing nothing to curb Tehran’s destabilizing role in Middle Eastern conflicts.