Iran says it will begin enriching uranium to unprecedented 60%
Israeli-owned ship attacked off UAE coast
Iran will begin enriching uranium up to 60% at the Natanz nuclear facility that was attacked earlier this week, Iranian state media reported Tuesday.
Sixty percent would be an unprecedented level for the Islamic Republic. Fissile material must reach 90% purity to be used for a nuclear weapon.
Under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was permitted to enrich uranium to less than 5% until 2030.
Iran will install 1,000 more centrifuge machines in Natanz, chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said.
The nuclear facility’s regular and emergency electrical grids exploded on Sunday due to an act that Iran has called terrorism by Israel.
Sources have confirmed that the Mossad was behind the explosion.
The White House said it was “concerned” about Iran’s “provocative” announcement that it would begin enriching uranium to 60% purity, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
In a suspected act of revenge on Tuesday, the Israeli-owned
ship Hyperion Ray was attacked near the shores Fujairah, an emirate in the United Arab Emirates, according to reports in Lebanon.
Data available on MarineTraffic.com showed that the Hyperion, a vehicle carrier sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, was stopped off the coast of Fujairah. Arab media reports said the ship was hit by an Iranian missile.
The vessel is associated with the Israeli Ray Shipping company, which owns a vessel believed to have been attacked by Iran in February.
Tuesday’s attack was likely carried out with a missile or drone, and light damage was caused to the vessel, Israeli media outlets reported.
The IDF declined to comment.
“Hyperion Ray incurred no damages and is continuing at full speed on its original voyage,” the owners of the ship said in a statement.
Before 2015 and since it began violating the nuclear deal in 2019, Iran enriched its stock of uranium to about 20%.
The jump to 20% set off alarms globally, as it was taking a major additional step toward a nuclear weapon, especially since there is no viable civilian use for 20% enriched uranium.
But to date, Iran has not enriched uranium up to 60%, often referred to as the next level for attaining a nuclear weapon.
US President Joe Biden has called for Iran to return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the world powers’ 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran is called, in exchange for the US lifting sanctions placed on Iran in recent years and an American return to the deal.
Indirect negotiations between Iran and the US were scheduled to continue in Vienna on Thursday, after a one-day postponement.
The talks would continue, the State Department said, adding that the negotiations had thus far been constructive.
“We take seriously Iran’s provocative announcement of its intention to begin enriching uranium to 60%, which the P5+1 should be unified in rejecting,” the State Department said, referring to the parties to the JCPOA. “This step both calls into question Iran’s seriousness with regard to the nuclear talks and underscores the imperative of returning to mutual compliance with the JCPOA.”
The State Department said that goal remains unchanged, and together with negotiations, they are “the best way to limit Iran’s nuclear program and set ourselves on a path to address the full range of concerns that we have with Iran’s activities in the region and beyond.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in a virtual meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, on Tuesday, “reaffirmed the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and to ensuring Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon.”
This was their second strategic consultation, and they said they would continue an open dialogue in the months ahead. Sullivan invited Ben-Shabbat to visit Washington later this month.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, who is involved in the nuclear talks, tweeted last
Thursday: “no doubt that in addition to previous issues the Commission will address the latest steps of Iran in the nuclear field, including 60% enrichment.”
The European parties to the Iran deal – the UK, France and Germany – have spoken out in the past, but not presently, against Iran’s recent increase of enrichment to 20% and its development of uranium metal, pointing out that they have no credible civilian use.
An Israeli official said enrichment to 60% is “breaking a threshold where it’s very clear what they’re doing, and obviously this is well on the way to a weapons-grade material.”
This highlights the core problem with the JCPOA, especially that it allows Iran to maintain “the infrastructure in place that allows it to do this,” the official said. “It’s only a matter of a political decision.”
Iran’s threat may be more of a boast, as they may not have achieved the capability of enriching uranium to the 60% level, people familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post. But even if they might have had the capability a few days ago, Sunday’s wiping out of the Natanz power grid might also make their statement more of a future than a present threat, the sources said.
Nevertheless, a public commitment to enrich to that level would be unprecedented for Iran and could show its seriousness to move closer to the nuclear threshold.
It was unclear how Tehran would increase the number of centrifuges it operates at Natanz after reports that enrichment at the facility could be set back nine months. However, the Islamic Republic has other nuclear facilities, such as Fordow.
In a report to member states on Tuesday about the International Atomic Energy Agency’s verification and monitoring in Iran, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Iran had informed it that the country intends to start producing UF6 enriched up to 60% U-235 at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant in Natanz.
Despite increased tensions with Iran and a security cabinet meeting planned for next week, Attorney-General Avi Mandelblit banned the security cabinet from meeting until a justice minister is appointed, Israeli media outlets reported.
Last week, the Iranian Saviz ship was damaged in an alleged Israeli attack in the Red Sea. That attack was preceded by two strikes against Israeli-owned vessels in the region and reports of dozens of earlier strikes carried out by Israel against Iran in the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Late last month, an Iranian missile was reportedly fired at an Israeli ship between India and Oman, striking and damaging it. In February, Iran allegedly attacked the Israeli-owned cargo vessel MV Helios Ray, which was damaged by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman.
According to reports, Israel notified the US that it was responsible for last week’s attack on the Iranian cargo ship affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Saviz was lightly damaged in the Red Sea off the coast of Djibouti at about 6 a.m. on Tuesday due to an explosion, adding that the cause was under investigation.
The Saviz, while officially listed as a merchant ship, was likely a covert IRGC forward base, the
United States Naval Institute reported last year. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency confirmed this, saying the ship had been stationed in the Red Sea in recent years to support Iranian commandos escorting commercial vessels.
Alex Winston contributed to this report. •