Iran restricts inspection of nuclear facilities
Iran officially started restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities yesterday, in a bid to pressure European countries and President Joe Biden’s administration to lift crippling economic sanctions and restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
World powers slammed the restrictions as a “dangerous” move.
The move came as the International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by The Associated Press that Iran had added 17.6kg of uranium enriched up to 20 per cent to its stockpile as of February 16.
It was the first official confirmation of plans Iran announced in January to enrich to the greater purity, which is just a technical step away from weapons-grade levels and far past the 3.67 per cent purity allowed under the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iran also increased its total enriched uranium stockpile to 2967.8kg, up from 2442.9kg reported on November 2, the IAEA reported.
Iran’s violations of the JCPOA and the move to limit international inspections underscore the daunting task facing Biden as he seeks to reverse former President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull the US out of the deal in 2018. That left Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia struggling to keep it alive.
The JCPOA was the most significant pact between Iran and major world powers since its 1979 Islamic revolution, and Germany, France and Britain stressed their commitment yesterday to preserving it, urging Iran to “stop and reverse all measures that reduce transparency”.
“The E3 are united in underlining the dangerous nature of this decision,” the European powers said in a statement. Before the nuclear deal, brokered under President Barack Obama’s administration in 2013, Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was more than 7000kg with higher enrichment.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a new law had gone into effect yesterday, under which Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the UN agency.
The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Tehran’s civilian nuclear agency, has promised to preserve the tapes for three months, then hand them over to the IAEA — but only if granted sanctions relief. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Besides surpassing the purity and stockpiles allowed, Iran has also been spinning advanced centrifuges and producing uranium metal.
Zarif stressed in a tweet yesterday that Iran’s new limits on nuclear inspections and other violations of the pact are reversible, insisting that the US move first to revive the deal.
The Biden administration has said it’s ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the deal. Zarif responded cautiously, saying Iran is “assessing the idea of an unofficial meeting” with the parties to the accord “in which America is invited as a non-member”.