Iran will boost its uranium enrichment after July 7 to whatever levels it needs beyond the cap set in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, President Hassan Rouhani says, defying US efforts to force Tehran to renegotiate the pact.
Iran announced this week it has stockpiled more low-enriched uranium than is permitted under the accord, a move that prompted US President Donald Trump – who withdrew the United States from the deal last year – to warn Iran was “playing with fire”.
European co-signatories said on Tuesday they were “extremely concerned” by Tehran’s apparent breach of the deal while Israel said it was preparing for possible involvement in any military confrontation between Iran and the United States.
“Our level of enrichment will no longer be 3.67. We will put this commitment aside by whatever amount we feel like, by whatever amount is our necessity, our need. We will take this above 3.67,” said Rouhani, according to IRIB news agency.
Uranium refined to a fissile purity of 3.67 per cent is deemed suitable for electricity generation and is the maximum allowed by the deal. Enrichment to 90 per cent yields bomb-grade material.
Rouhani said that if the other signatories do not protect trade with Iran promised under the deal but blocked by Trump’s reimposition of tough sanctions, Iran would start to revive its Arak heavy-water reactor after July 7.
Read the article by Babak Dehghanpisheh and Parisa Hafezi in The Canberra Times.