IRAN OKS LAW TO INCREASE URANIUM ENRICHMENT

Iran passed a law Wednesday to immediately begin enriching uranium to a level closer to weapons grade and to suspend the access of international inspectors to its nuclear facilities if sanctions are not lifted by early February, shortly after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The law was the clearest fallout yet from the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, which Iranian officials have promised to avenge.

The law orders Iran’s atomic energy agency to begin enriching uranium to 20 percent immediately, returning Iran’s enrichment program to the level that existed before the 2015 nuclear agreement. While converting the entire stockpile could take six months, the order to do so could be seen as a provocation in the waning days of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump, who made containing Iran a main foreign policy goal of his administration, has considered attacking Iran during his lame-duck period.

The law sets a two-month deadline for oil and banking sanctions against Iran to be lifted before barring inspectors, creating a potential crisis for the early days of the Biden administration. The timing seems deliberately intended to press Biden to re-enter the nuclear deal with Iran immediately upon taking office.

The speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said the measure was meant to send the West a message in the aftermath of the assassination that the “oneway game is over.”

Iran’s parliament initially passed the law Tuesday. The law was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council, an appointed body that oversees the elected government, on Wednesday.