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Iran passed a new law in its parliament to stop UN inspections of nuclear power plants and increase uranium production.
If sanctions against Iran are not lifted in the next two months, the government will produce 20 percent more uranium instead of the 3.8 percent agreed to in the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said he opposes the law.
The move comes after the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist.
Mohsen Fakhriade was killed on Friday in a mysterious road raid on the outskirts of the capital Tehran. Iran believes that Israel and an exiled opposition group shot Fakhriadez with a remote control weapon.
However, Iran has yet to comment publicly on the allegations.
Fakhriad has made significant contributions to Iran’s nuclear program. But the country’s government has repeatedly said that its nuclear program is completely peaceful.
How much will Iran’s new law affect its nuclear program?
Under a law passed by Iran’s Guardian Council, European countries that signed the nuclear deal in 2015 will have two months to ease sanctions on the country’s economic and oil sectors. Those sanctions were reimposed in 2016 when the United States withdrew from the agreement.
If sanctions are not lifted within this period, the government will increase uranium production by 20 percent and install upgraded centrifuges that enrich the uranium. These steps will be taken at the Natanz and Fordo nuclear power plants in the country.
UN inspectors will also be prohibited from entering these manufacturing facilities.
“In a letter today, the speaker of parliament called on the president to implement the new law,” Iranian news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.
Before passing the law, President Rouhani said his government did not agree with the proposal. He called it “detrimental to diplomacy.”
US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2016 and imposed tough economic sanctions on Tehran.
Newly elected President Joe Biden, however, has said that he will bring the United States back into the deal and that sanctions will be lifted if Tehran “adheres to the terms of the nuclear deal.”
Biden, who will take office as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, told the New York Times that “the subject is definitely difficult” but that “the last thing we have to do in that part of the world is develop nuclear capacity. “.
Under the agreement, Iran violated the condition of limiting its nuclear production to 3.6% in July 2019 and since then the rate has remained stable at 4.5%.
Low-level nuclear power plants, containing 3 to 5 percent uranium-235, are used as fuel for power plants. Weapons must contain more than 90 percent uranium.
Europe, the United States and the United Nations imposed sanctions on the country in 2010 on suspicion that Iran was carrying out a nuclear program to cover up its nuclear program.
The 2015 agreement was to limit the program and lift the ban by securing it.
Source: BBC
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