Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Iran threatening to revive nuke program
Hassan Rouhani says nation may ramp up nuclear research if U.S. continues “threats and sanctions.”
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president warned Tuesday that it could ramp up its nuclear program and quickly achieve a more advanced level if the U.S. continues “threats and sanctions” against the country, which signed a landmark nuclear accord with world powers in 2015.
Hassan Rouhani’s remarks to lawmakers were his most direct warning that the deal could fall apart, and they risked ratcheting up tensions with the United States. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to scuttle the accord, which limited Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon while ending most sanctions against it.
This week, Iran’s parliament voted to increase spending on the country’s ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The move came in response to U.S. legislation passed this month imposing mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The U.S. legislation also applies terrorism sanctions to the Guard and enforces an existing arms embargo.
If Washington continues with “threats and sanctions” against Iran, Rouhani said in parliament Tuesday, Tehran could easily ramp up its nuclear activities.
“In an hour and a day, Iran could return to a more advanced (nuclear) level than at the beginning of the negotiations” that preceded the 2015 deal, Rouhani said, though he underlined that Iran prefers to remain in the accord.
The maneuvering around the Iran deal comes at a time when tensions have skyrocketed between the U.S and North Korea, which has tested nuclear weapons and threatened in recent weeks to fire a ballistic missile into the waters off the U.S. territory of Guam.
The agreement between Iran and world powers capped Iran’s uranium enrichment levels in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
The U.S. and other world powers fear Iran seeks the ability to produce atomic weapons. Iran has long denied that it seeks nuclear arms and says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
It was not immediately clear what Rouhani was referring to — and whether he meant Iran could restart centrifuges enriching uranium to higher levels.
He also offered no evidence of Iran’s capability to rapidly restart higher enrichment, though Iran still has its stock of centrifuges. Those devices now churn out uranium to low levels that can range from use as reactor fuel and for medical and research purposes but could produce the much higher levels for a nuclear weapon.
In December, Rouhani ordered plans to build nuclear-powered ships, something that appears allowed under the nuclear deal.
Rouhani’s remarks were likely an attempt to appease hard-liners who have demanded a tougher stand against the United States. But they are also expected to ratchet up tensions further with the Trump administration.
Iran has said the new U.S. sanctions amount to a “hostile” breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.