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A US official downplayed the significance of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s statement that Iran could enrich uranium to 60 percent purity, saying this would be concerning, but Iran has yet to implement it and Washington is waiting to see if Tehran returns. to the talks.
On Thursday, the United States offered to sit down with the Iranians along with other signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, seeking a possible way back to the deal abandoned by former US President Donald Trump.
The main part of the deal is for Iran to reduce its uranium enrichment program, making it difficult for it to collect the fissile materials needed to build a nuclear weapon, which Iran has been denying, in exchange for easing US sanctions and other economic sanctions. .
On Monday, Iranian state television quoted Khamenei as saying that Tehran could enrich uranium by up to 60 percent if the country needed it, adding that Tehran would never give in to pressure from the United States regarding its nuclear activities.
Iran responded to Trump’s abandonment of the nuclear deal and the reimposition of U.S. sanctions by reducing its compliance with the terms of the deal, including enriching uranium by up to 20 percent, which is higher than the 3.67 limit. percent on the deal. although much less than the 90 percent required for weapons.
“Until we return to the talks, the two parties will seek to take positions … to harden the tone … Let’s see if they agree to return to the (negotiating) table,” said the US official, who requested anonymity.
The White House said America’s allies in Europe were still waiting for Iran’s response to the European Union’s offer to host talks between the parties that signed the nuclear deal: Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia. and the United States.
The US official added: “There’s no question that if we don’t come to an understanding, they will continue to expand their nuclear program … if that’s what he says they will do (enrichment of up to) 60 percent, or something else.”
He added: “Both sides are accumulating influence now, either through their nuclear moves on their side, or we are with the sanctions that were imposed. This really doesn’t help either side.”
He noted that if Iran were to enrich uranium by 60 percent, it would be of concern to Washington, but it has not yet done so. He added that the United States wanted to “find a way that dissipates any sentiment on both sides of the need for escalation. Rather, it wants to get back to the point where the two sides complied with the agreement.”
In a later development, Iranian state television quoted Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency Kazem Gharib Abadi as saying that Iran had stopped implementing the additional protocol that allowed the agency to conduct surprise inspections.
The agency said on Sunday it had agreed with Iran to maintain “necessary” monitoring for up to three months to ease the impact of the decision to end flash inspections and other measures Tehran intends to take.
The release of frozen funds
On the other hand, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said that a billion dollars of frozen Iranian funds would be released in South Korea.
He stressed that “Iran has reached agreements with South Korea and Japan, and that it is negotiating with Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman to release frozen Iranian funds” there.
On the other hand, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Iranian assets frozen in Seoul will be released, after consulting with Washington.
It should be noted that a South Korean Foreign Ministry official had revealed earlier this month that Seoul and Washington are about to conclude discussions on using part of the frozen funds to pay United Nations fees against Iran, with Iran’s approval of this proposal. Like Tehran, it had asked Seoul to use part of its frozen funds to pay part of its arrears to the United Nations, but the funds must be transferred from the Korean currency to the US dollar before payment, and US sanctions currently prohibit transactions with Iran. .
South Korea had previously announced that one South Korean sailor of the 20 sailors aboard the South Korean tanker “Hankook Kimi” detained in Iran had been released and returned to his country.
It is noteworthy that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard detained the Korean tanker “Hankook Kimi” and his crew on the 4th of last month, in waters near the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that it pollutes the marine environment.
And there were 20 sailors on board the tanker, including 5 South Korean sailors, including the South Korean captain and 11 people from Myanmar, two Indonesians and two Vietnamese.
On the 2nd of this month, the Iranian government announced that it had decided to release all the sailors from the detained ship, except for the South Korean captain.
