IRAN BEGINS RAMPING UP ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM

Emirates

Iran began enriching uranium Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a South Koreanf lagged tanker near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a double-barreled challenge to the West that further raised Mideast tensions.

Both decisions appeared aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage in the waning days in office for President Donald Trump, whose unilateral withdrawal from the atomic accord in 2018 began a series of escalating incidents.

Increasing enrichment at its underground Fordo facility puts Tehran a technical step away from weaponsgrade levels of 90 percent, while also pressuring President-elect Joe Biden to quickly negotiate.

Iran’s seizure of the MT Hankuk Chemi comes as a South Korean diplomat was due to travel to the Islamic Republic to discuss the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in Seoul.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seemed to acknowledge Tehran’s interest in leveraging the situation in a tweet about its nuclear enrichment.

“Our measures are fully reversible upon FULL compliance by ALL,” he wrote.

At Fordo, Iranian nuclear scientists under the watch of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors loaded centrifuges with over 285 pounds of low-enriched uranium to be spun up to 20 percent, said Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations atomic agency.

The IAEA later described the Fordo setup as three sets of two interconnected cascades, comprised of 1,044 IR-1 centrifuges — Iran’s first-generation centrifuges.

A cascade is a group of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium.

Iranian state television quoted government spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying that President Hassan Rouhani had given the order to begin the production.

The U.S. State Department criticized Iran’s move as a “clear attempt to increase its campaign of nuclear extortion.”