[ad_1]
VIENNA – Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it plans to enrich uranium to 20% purity, a level reached before the 2015 agreement, at its Fordow facility, built on a mountain, the agency said on Friday. from the ONU. -market.
The move is the latest in a series of breaches of the deal, which Iran began implementing in 2019 in retaliation for the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the pact and the reimposition of US sanctions against Tehran.
Raising the enrichment level to levels above 3.67% set out in the agreement was one of the measures envisaged in a law passed by Parliament last month in response to the November assassination of the country’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. , for which Tehran blamed Israel.
The 20% level allows the use of uranium for the production of medical isotopes, but brings Iran closer to the 90% enrichment needed for the production of nuclear weapons. Iran had already exceeded the 3.67% limit, but only 4.5%. The IAEA statement said Iran did not specify when 20% enrichment would resume.
Read More:Twenty days after the end of the Trump administration, tension between the United States and Iran is mounting.
These moves could complicate the efforts of US President-elect Joe Biden to promote Washington’s return to the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the world’s major powers. Under the pact, Iran formally stopped producing the atomic bomb and agreed to comprehensive IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities, which continues to happen. In return, it would reap financial benefits from the lifting of sanctions from the United States, the European Union and the UN.
The announcement also comes on the eve of the first anniversary this Sunday of the assassination by the United States of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, a crime that left the two countries on the brink of open war. The tension between Washington and Tehran has increased as the date approaches, with the Pentagon ordering the Persian Gulf to fly over B-52 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs.
