IRAN SAYS IT WILL ENRICH URANIUM TO 60 PERCENT

Iran said Tuesday that it would begin enriching uranium to a level of 60 percent purity, three times the current level and much closer to that needed to make a bomb, though American officials doubt the country has the ability to produce a weapon in the near future.

Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, did not give a reason for the shift, but it appeared to be retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iran’s primary nuclear fuel production plant as well as a move to strengthen Iran’s hand in nuclear talks in Vienna.

Araghchi said that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its decision in a letter on Tuesday. Araghchi also said that Iran would replace the centrifuges damaged by the attack Sunday at Natanz, where an explosion knocked the facility offline, and install an additional 1,000 centrifuges to increase the plant’s capacity by 50 percent.

Iran also attacked an Israeli-owned cargo ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, officials said, the latest clash in its maritime shadow war with Israel. The attack was reported to have caused little to no damage.

The uranium enrichment announcement came as U.S. intelligence agencies said that while Iran had gradually resumed production of nuclear material since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord, there was no evidence it had resumed the work needed to fashion that material into a nuclear weapon.

“We continue to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that we judge would be necessary to produce a nuclear device,” the agencies said in their annual threat assessment report released Tuesday.

The report said, however, that “if Tehran does not receive sanctions relief” — as Iran has demanded — “Iranian officials probably will consider options ranging from further enriching uranium up to 60% to designing and building a new” nuclear reactor that could, over the long term, produce bomb-grade material. That would take years.

The assessment would seem to give President Joe Biden some breathing room as he enters negotiations in Vienna aimed at restoring some form of the nuclear agreement.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, called Iran’s announcement Tuesday “provocative,” and said it “calls into question Iran’s seriousness in regards to the nuclear talks.”