Iran says nuclear work will not be hurt by end of US sanctions waivers

AUS decision to terminate sanctions waivers that have allowed foreign companies to do some work at Iranian nuclear sites will not affect Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) said yesterday.

The United States said on Wednesday it will terminate the waivers, which had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to carry out work at Iranian nuclear sites.

The role of the foreign firms was agreed in Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, and was intended to help ensure Iran’s nuclear programme would not be used to make weapons.

“The ending of waivers for nuclear co-operation under (the nuclear deal) will not in practice have any effect on Iran’s work,” AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said, in remarks reported by ISNA news agency. “Of course America wants its actions to have an effect in line with pressure on Iran, but in practice nothing will happen.”

Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran has scaled back its commitments under the deal but says it still abides by its overall terms. The waivers, which officials said expire on July 27, covered the conversion of Iran’s Arak heavy water research reactor, the provision of enriched uranium for its Tehran Research Reactor and the transfer of spent and scrap reactor fuel abroad.

Iran agreed to shut down the reactor at Arak — about 250km southwest of Tehran — under the 2015 deal. Iran was allowed to produce a limited amount of heavy water and Tehran has been working on redesigning the reactor. Tehran says it will make isotopes for medical and agricultural use.

Work on redesigning the Arak reactor is continuing, albeit at a slow pace because of sanctions and problems with carrying out the nuclear deal, Kamalvandi said.

The United States said it was ending waivers in its sanctions for nations that remain in the Iran nuclear accord, bringing the deal further to the verge of collapse.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was responding to Iran’s “brinkmanship” — its series of small but defiant nuclear steps, aimed at pressuring the United States to remove sanctions as called for by the 2015 accord.

“These escalatory actions are unacceptable and I cannot justify renewing the waiver,” Pompeo said in a statement. President Donald Trump bolted from the agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, under which Iran had drastically curbed its nuclear activities.

But the Trump administration until now had issued waivers to allow companies, primarily from Russia, to keep carrying out the work of the agreement without risking legal ramifications in the world’s largest economy.

The United States will notably do away with the waivers that allowed the modification of the heavy water reactor in Arak, which prevented it from using plutonium for military use, as well as the export of spent and scrap research reactor fuel.

Pompeo said that the United States was issuing a final 60day waiver to allow companies involved in the projects to wrap up operations.