US President Donald Trump warned Iran over its imminent breach of a uranium enrichment cap.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Online - 08th July, 2019) US President Donald Trump warned Iran over its imminent breach of a uranium enrichment cap."Iran better be careful, because you enrich for one reason, and I won t tell you what that reason is. But it s no good. They better be careful," he told reporters in Morristown, New Jersey.Trump s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, earlier Sunday said Iran will face further sanctions in response to the expected breach of the cap set by an endangered nuclear deal reached with international powers but from which the United States withdrew last year.
The 3.67 percent enrichment limit set in the agreement is far below the more than 90 percent level required for a nuclear warhead.Earlier, Iran said Sunday it was set to breach the uranium enrichment cap set by an endangered nuclear deal within hours as it seeks to press other parties into keeping their side of the bargain.The Islamic republic also threatened to abandon more commitments unless a solution is found with the remaining parties to the landmark 2015 agreement after Washington unilaterally pulled out.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Sunday that Iran would face "further isolation and sanctions", adding to a raft of biting economic measures imposed by Washington.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Tehran could further scale back its commitments to the deal, but "all such steps are reversible" if key European partners deliver on their part.The move to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.
67 percent comes despite opposition from countries backing the nuclear deal.Britain said Iran had "broken the terms" of the accord, and along with Germany urged Tehran to "stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its commitments."President Hassan Rouhani s order to exceed the threshold would be implemented "in a few hours" after the last technical details were sorted, Iran s Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said live on state television.
Rouhani initially flagged Tehran s intentions on May 8, exactly a year on from Trump abandoning the pact.The Iranian president has said the move is in response to a failure by remaining parties to help Tehran work around sanctions already reimposed by the US.The arch-rivals have been locked in an escalating war of words with Washington blaming Iran for a series of attacks on tanker ships and Tehran shooting down an American surveillance drone, raising fears of a conflict that both sides have said they want to avoid.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said in recent days that Iran has exceeded a 300-kilogramme limit on enriched uranium reserves, a cap that was imposed by the 2015 deal.Iran had previously threatened to also resume building as of July 7 a heavy water reactor -- capable of one day producing plutonium -- in Arak in central Iran, a project that had been mothballed under the agreement.However since Iran delivered its ultimatum on the Arak reactor "good technical progress" had been made with parties on modernising the facility in a way that would not produce military grade plutonium, convincing Iran to postpone its decision, Araghchi said.
The 2015 deal was reached between Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, the United States and Russia -- and saw Tehran agree to drastically scale down its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.Washington began reimposing sanctions in August 2018 and has targeted crucial sectors including oil exports and the banking system, fuelling a deep recession.Iran s Atomic Energy Organisation is fully ready to enrich uranium "at any amount and at any level" if ordered to do so, its spokesman Kamalvandi said.
A top advisor to Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted Friday it could reach five percent.The 3.67 percent enrichment limit set in the agreement is far below the more than 90 percent level required for a nuclear warhead.Iran says that it is not violating the deal, citing terms of the agreement allowing one side to temporarily abandon some of commitments if it deems the other side is not respecting its part of the accord.France expressed "great concern" and demanded Tehran "Iran halt all activities that do not meet its commitments," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Rouhani by phone Saturday and pledged to "explore by July 15 the conditions for a resumption of dialogue between all parties," according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.Iran says it exercised "strategic patience" for a year after the US withdrawal, waiting for the remaining partners to make good on promised economic benefits.The IAEA has scheduled a special meeting on Iran s nuclear programme for July 10.
