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Friday, January 1, 2021
Uranium enrichment is progressing
Iran announces violations of the nuclear pact
Iran wants to continue violating the 2015 nuclear pact and enrich uranium. The country is far from being able to use it for nuclear weapons. Still, the announcement is likely to give US President-elect Joe Biden a headache.
According to the UN nuclear regulator, IAEA, Iran has announced new violations of the international nuclear agreement. The country announced in a letter its intention to enrich uranium by up to 20 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. “In Iran’s letter to the agency … it was not specified when this enrichment activity would take place,” the IAEA said.
The move is the latest of several announcements by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency that the country intends to continue violating the agreement it has been breaking since 2019 in retaliation for Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement and the reintroduction of sanctions Americans against Tehran. The announcement comes from the law passed by Iran’s parliament last month in response to the assassination of the country’s best nuclear scientist. Tehran blames Israel for the murder.
Enrichment so far only at 4.5 percent
“Iran has told the agency that the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency plans to produce up to 20 percent low-enriched uranium at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” the IAEA said in a statement. Fordow was built on a mountain, apparently to protect it from air raids, and the 2015 Atomic Pact does not allow enrichment there.
The 2015 agreement stipulates that Iran can enrich uranium up to a maximum of 3.67 percent. However, after US President Donald Trump unilaterally terminated the deal, also against the will of the European contracting parties, Iran began to phase out its 2019 obligations and enrich uranium at 4.5 percent. hundred. Wearable uranium must be enriched by up to 90 percent.
Before the nuclear deal was signed, Iran had reached 20 percent. The goal of the agreement is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. US intelligence and the IAEA believe that Iran had a secret and coordinated nuclear weapons program that was closed in 2003. Iran denies ever having one, and the country has consistently denied allegations that it is secretly seeking nuclear weapons. Iran’s current move could complicate US President-elect Joe Biden’s efforts to rejoin the nuclear pact.
