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Iran steps up pressure on uranium enrichment after US pullout
TEHRAN, June 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Iran said Tuesday it has launched a plan
to boost uranium enrichment capacity with new centrifuges, raising the
pressure on European diplomats scrambling to rescue the crumbling nuclear
deal after Washington pulled out.
“If conditions allow, maybe tomorrow night at Natanz, we can announce the
opening of the centre for production of new centrifuges,” said Vice-President
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, according
to conservative news agency Fars.
“What we are doing does not violate the (2015 nuclear) agreement,” he
said, adding that a letter was submitted to the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) “yesterday regarding the start of certain activities”.
He specified this was just the start of the production process and “does
not mean that we will start assembling the centrifuges”.
Under the 2015 nuclear agreement that Iran signed with world powers, it
can build and test parts for advanced centrifuges, but specific restrictions
exist on what technology can be researched and in what quantity within the
first decade of the deal.
Salehi also emphasised that these moves “do not mean the negotiations
(with Europe) have failed.”
European governments have been trying to salvage the nuclear deal ever
since the United States announced its withdrawal last month and said it would
reimpose sanctions on foreign companies working in the Islamic republic by
November.
The remaining parties — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia —
have vowed to stay in the accord but many of their companies have already
started to wind down Iranian operations.
On Monday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the
Europeans that “Iran will never tolerate both suffering from sanctions and
nuclear restrictions” and called for preparations to speed up uranium
enrichment.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian uses only, but
opponents in the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia accuse it of seeking to build an
atomic bomb.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted swiftly to Salehi’s
announcement, charging that the Islamic republic’s aim was “unlimited
enrichment of uranium to create an arsenal of nuclear bombs” to destroy his
country.
Under the 2015 agreement, Iran is permitted to enrich uranium to 3.67
percent.
It has previously stated it could “within days” return to enrichment of 20
percent — still within the limits of civilian use but allowing for a much
quicker jump to military-grade levels of 80-90 percent.
– Businesses leaving –
Keen to preserve the nuclear deal — with which Iran has so far been fully
compliant according to international inspectors — European governments are
working on measures to protect their businesses from US sanctions.
But Iran had already been denied much of the economic benefits it had
hoped for from the deal, thanks to the continued reluctance of international
banks to facilitate trade and a raft of non-nuclear US sanctions that were
never lifted.
With the US pulling out of the deal entirely, several large firms have
said it will be impossible to continue operating in Iran except in the
unlikely scenario that they win bulletproof exemptions from Washington.
France’s PSA, which manufactures Peugeot and Citroen cars, on Monday
became the latest to announce its plans to pull out of Iran, where it sold
nearly 445,000 cars last year.
French energy giant Total is also preparing its departure from a $4.8-
billion gas project in Iran, with its CEO saying last week that the chances
of a US exemption were “very slim.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1758 hrs