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DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Guardian Council watchdog on Wednesday passed a law requiring the government to stop UN inspections of its nuclear sites and increase uranium enrichment beyond the limit set in the nuclear deal. of Tehran of 2015 if sanctions are not eased in two months.
In retaliation for the assassination last week of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, which Tehran has blamed on Israel, Iran’s hard-line-dominated parliament on Tuesday passed the bill with a strong majority that will toughen Iran’s nuclear stance.
The Council of Guardians is charged with ensuring that the bills do not contradict Shiite Islamic laws or the constitution of Iran. However, the position of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state affairs, is not known.
“Today, in a letter, the speaker of parliament officially asked the president to implement the new law,” reported Iran’s semi-official news agency, Fars.
Under the new law, Tehran would give European parties to the deal two months to ease sanctions on Iran’s financial and oil sectors, imposed after Washington abandoned the pact between Tehran and six powers in 2018.
In reaction to US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy on Tehran, Iran has gradually reduced its compliance with the agreement.
The law pushed by hardline lawmakers would make it harder for US President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office on January 20, to rejoin the deal.
Biden has said he would revert to the pact and lift sanctions if Tehran returned to “strictly abide by the nuclear deal.”
“Now there is more pressure on the (President Hassan) Rouhani government to secure a return of the United States to the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) quickly,” tweeted Ariane Tabatabai, Middle East researcher at the German Marshall Fund and the University of Columbia.
Rouhani, the Iranian architect of the 2015 deal, criticized the parliament’s move as “detrimental to diplomatic efforts” aimed at easing US sanctions.
Under the new law, the government should resume enriching uranium to 20 percent and install advanced centrifuges at its Natanz and Fordow nuclear facilities.
The agreement limits the fissile purity at which Iran can refine uranium to 3.67 percent, well below the 20 percent reached before the agreement and below the 90 percent weapon grade level.
Iran broke the 3.67 percent limit in July 2019 and the enrichment level has been stable at 4.5 percent since then.
Britain, France and Germany, all parties to the 2015 agreement, have urged Iran to fully respect it.
FILE PHOTO: A protester holds up a photo of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, during a demonstration against his assassination in Tehran, Iran, on November 28, 2020. Majid Asgaripour / WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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