Iran Warns It Could Stop Complying with 2015 Nuclear Deal
Iran again threatened to stop complying with the 2015 nuclear deal Monday and surpass the maximum amount of enriched uranium it is allowed to have under the deal.
The country’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said Iran will stop complying unless United Kingdom and France — both signatories of the 2015 deal — help it get around American sanctions, The New York Times reported.
Iran’s low-enriched uranium stockpile could grow beyond the deal’s limit within 10 days Kamalvandi said according to The Times, who cited Iranian news agency Tasnim.
Not all enriched uranium is weapons-grade.
The maximum enrichment level allowed for Iran, 3.67 percent, is designed for nuclear power. But Kamalvandi said Iran needs 5 percent for its Bushehr nuclear power plant and 20 percent for a research reactor, Fox News reported.
Twenty percent is just below the threshold for weapons.
Kamalvandi’s news conference in front of Iran’s Arak nuclear plant reinforced the nation’s ultimatum for European countries to move forward with a special trade channel Instex despite U.S. opposition.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in May that Iran will disregard the nuclear deal in 60 days if the nation does not receive sanctions relief.
The 60 days will be up in early July, The Times reported.
Germany, the UK and France announced the creation of Instex in January.
“As long as they comply by their commitments, these will go back,” Kamalvandi said Monday according to The Times.
Iran’s threats of noncompliance come after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran on Sunday of carrying out last weeks attack on two oil tankers near the globally important Strait of Hormuz. The two powers have long been at odds.
Iran, the fifth largest oil producer in the world according to the Energy Information Administration, was not happy when the U.S. refused to renew waivers earlier in May for eight countries to import Iranian oil despite sanctions, The Washington Post reported.
Iran, the U.S. and countries including the United Kingdom and France all signed the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, and have been searching for a new normal after President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in May 2018.
Trump railed against what he called “the military-industrial complex” when asked about potential conflict with Iran during an interview with Steve Hilton of Fox News Channel in May.
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