TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2020) The Iranian parliament's bill calling for revitalization of nuclear activities and suspension of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections could harm the country's diplomatic efforts, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Iranian legislature ratified draft bill that seeks to halt implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which allows the global watchdog to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities.
"The government does not agree with this plan. We believe that it will harm the active diplomatic activities," Rouhani said during a government meeting, broadcast on television.
Rouhani stressed that, at the moment, Iran's nuclear industry was stronger than ever.
On Sunday, the parliament passed a bill, dubbed "The strategic measure for the removal of sanctions." According to the bill, Iran will be producing at least 120 kilograms of 20-percent enriched uranium annually, with weapons-grade uranium upgraded to an enrichment level of over 20 percent. Iran is currently enriching uranium at a level above 4 percent, slightly higher than the 3.67 percent prescribed by the nuclear deal.
The bill also authorizes the use of IR-2M uranium enrichment centrifuges and IR-6 centrifuges, while the nuclear deal provides for the use of the first-generation IR-1 centrifuges.
The bill has been in preparation for several months, but the parliament passed it in an accelerated manner after the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian Defense Ministry's innovation center. Passing the bill into law requires the consent of the Guardian Council, an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council in Iran.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, stipulates the removal of international sanctions from Tehran in exchange for it scaling down its nuclear program. The United States unilaterally abandoned the agreement in May 2018 under the administration of incumbent President Donald Trump.
Joe Biden, who has been declared US president-elect by major media outlets, said he would rejoin the JCPOA, if Tehran gave up the nuclear stockpile it has amassed in violation of the agreement and return to full compliance. Iran, on the other hand, said the US must first return to its international commitments before further discussions. Biden also expressed readiness to lift the sanctions that Trump imposed on Iran.
