[ad_1]
Published in:
Iranian state television quoted Ali Khamenei as saying on Monday 2/22 that Tehran can enrich uranium by up to 60 percent if the country needs it, adding that Tehran will never give in to US pressure on its nuclear activities.
The nuclear deal, which Iran concluded with six world powers in 2015 and has violated since the United States withdrew from it in 2018, sets the fissile purity to which Tehran can enrich uranium by 3.67 percent, which is less of the 20 percent that the Islamic Republic achieved prior to completion. The deal, well below the 90 percent ratio needed to build a nuclear weapon. The television credited Khamenei saying: “The level of enrichment of Iranian uranium will not be limited to 20 percent. We will increase it to the level that the country needs … We can increase it to 60 percent,” fueling the crisis with Washington. on the future of the agreement.
“The Americans and the European parties to the agreement have used unfair language against Iran … Iran will not give in to pressure. Our position will not change,” Khamenei said. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Khamenei’s comments “appear to be a threat” and declined to respond to what he described as “assumptions.” He reiterated Washington’s willingness to hold talks with Iran on returning to the nuclear deal. The administration of US President Joe Biden said last week that it was ready to speak with Iran about the return of the two countries to the deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump.
Tehran said last week that it was studying a proposal from the European Union to hold an informal meeting between the countries currently participating in the nuclear deal and the United States, but has not yet responded. Washington and Iran, who have resumed 20 percent enrichment in an apparent attempt to increase pressure on the United States, are at odds over who should take the first step to reactivate the deal. Despite internal pressure to ease economic hardships exacerbated by sanctions, Iranian leaders insist Washington must end the economic pressure campaign first to reactivate the deal, while Washington says Tehran must first return to full compliance. .
Path of diplomacy
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Monday that Washington would aim to consolidate and extend the 2015 accord, which aims to limit Iran’s ability to enrich enrichment, a possible avenue to build atomic bombs, in return. the lifting of most sanctions. In his televised comments, Khamenei reiterated his denial of any Iranian intention to use uranium enrichment in weapons production. “The international Zionist clown (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) said that they would not allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons. First of all, if we had that intention, even those stronger than him could not stop us.”
To pressure the Biden administration to remove sanctions, Iran’s ultra-conservative parliament passed a law last year requiring the government to end surprise inspections by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency starting Tuesday if sanctions are not lifted. Kazem Gharib Abadi, Iran’s envoy to the agency, said Tehran had stopped implementing the so-called additional protocol, which allows the agency to conduct surprise inspections, at midnight (2030 GMT). To allow for diplomacy, the agency reached an agreement Sunday with Iran to mitigate the impact of declining Iranian cooperation and to refuse to allow swift inspections. Iranian MPs protested Monday against Tehran’s decision to allow “necessary” monitoring operations by UN inspectors for a period of up to three months, saying this violates the new law.
