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The international positions came after the Iranian government announced that it would begin enriching uranium by up to 20 percent in an underground facility.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Iran’s resumption of enrichment of uranium to 20 percent is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
And Netanyahu declared, in a statement, that Israel would never allow Tehran to develop such nuclear weapons, according to Reuters.
The Israeli prime minister added that Iran’s decision on enrichment can only be explained as an attempt “to continue implementing its intention to develop a nuclear weapons program.”
Netanyahu added that Israel “will never allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons.”
A great violation
Meanwhile, the European Union said that Iran’s increase in uranium enrichment to 20 percent constitutes a “major violation” of the nuclear deal. The European Union added that this violation would have serious consequences for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
A spokesman for the European Commission said, during a daily press conference, that Brussels was awaiting a briefing from the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency during the day before deciding on any possible moves.
IAEA confirms
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Monday that Iran had started the process of enriching uranium to 20 percent, a rate much higher than that stipulated in the nuclear agreement between Tehran and the main countries in 2015.
“Iran today began producing uranium enriched up to 4.1 percent in six centrifuge groups at the Fordow facility … with the aim of reaching a rate of up to 20 percent,” the agency said. the ONU.
Iranian challenge
Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said that President Hassan Rouhani “gave the order” to take such a step at the Fordo facility, according to the official IRNA news agency.
He added: “A few minutes ago, the 20 percent enriched uranium production process began at the Fordow enrichment complex.”
This step is the latest among several Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, which Tehran began violating in 2019 in response to Washington’s withdrawal from the deal and the re-imposition of US sanctions on it.
On January 1, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Tehran that it planned to resume enrichment of up to 20 percent at the site, which is located inside a mountain.
Previously, Iran violated the maximum uranium purity level stipulated in the agreement, which is 3.67 percent, but so far it has raised enrichment to just 4.5 percent, well below the level of 20 and 90 percent, which is the level of purity needed to make weapons. .
US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe that Iran had a secret and coordinated nuclear weapons program that it halted in 2003. While Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program at all.
