Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assures Iran could enrich 60% uranium to “meet the country’s needs”

Iranian regime could enrich uranium up to 60%, a high level close to that used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, if necessarySupreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Monday.

“Iran’s enrichment limit will not be just 20%. We will act according to our needs (…). We could increase the enrichment to 60% “Ayatollah said in a statement posted on its official website.

The Islamic Republic currently produces 20% enriched uranium, in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, which states the limit of a purity of 3.67%. Uranium enriched to values ​​between 3% and 5% is intended for energy production in nuclear power plants, that is, for peaceful use, while 20% enrichment is generally used in the development of propulsion systems. An enrichment greater than 80% is used, instead, to make nuclear weapons and also for certain scientific research.

The increase in enrichment to 20% was approved in a law last December of the Iranian parliament, which also obliges the voluntary application of the additional protocol to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to be suspended tomorrow.

“God willing, another part of this legislation will be implemented tomorrow. This law, which is good, must be executed with precision ”, said Iran’s Supreme Leader, who has the final say in the country’s important decisions.

Khamenei’s remarks come a day after Iran and the IAEA, the UN nuclear agency, agreed on Sunday a new verification regime, more limited and lasting three months, to monitor Iran’s nuclear program before the cooperation suspensions announced by Tehran for next week.

This was announced by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on his return to Vienna after a two-day visit to Tehran, where he met the main nuclear negotiators of the Iran.

“We will have less access (than so far), we have to be honest, but we keep enough access”Grossi said in press statements at the airport in the Austrian capital.

The tension around the Iranian regime’s nuclear program and its verification by the IAEA is due to an Iranian law which comes into force on Tuesday and which stipulates a suspension of the application of the so-called “additional protocol” of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons power plants (NPTs) if the United States does not lift its sanctions against the country.

This protocol allows IAEA inspectors to visit and investigate any facility in Iran, whether civilian or military, without notice. This is a key step in the 2015 nuclear deal, then signed by Iran and the so-called 5 + 1s (US, Germany, France, UK, Russia and China), to limit the program Persian nuclear in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in May 2018 and iRán began a year later to gradually not respect its essential elements, in particular the level of uranium enrichment (at 20%).

Grossi pointed out on Sunday that “The law exists and will be applied”, which means that “the additional protocol will be suspended”. “However, we have agreed on a specific bilateral agreement to get through this period as well as possible without losing the necessary verification capacity”, summed up the CEO.

Grossi expressed in this regard the hope that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement in the near future so that the two sides can fully comply with the 2015 agreement, known as the JCPOA, for its acronym in English.

The current President of the United States, the Democrat Joe bidenHe wants to return to the JCPOA but first demands that Iran comply with all the rules again. The Islamic Republic, however, has made it clear that it will only give in to its violations of the agreement once Washington lifts its sanctions, especially the oil embargo that has hit its economy hard.

Faced with constant denunciations from Western powers, the Islamic Republic has always denied having any intention of possessing nuclear weapons. The 2015 international agreement provided for the lifting of sanctions in exchange for Iran dropping the atomic bomb.

Despite the Persian regime’s denials, the latest violations of the agreement have put the international community on alert. Last week, the IAEA reported that Tehran had started manufacturing uranium metal. On February 8, the UN agency “verified 3.6 grams of uranium metal at the Isfahan plant” (in the center of the country). The question is delicate because uranium metal can be used to make nuclear weapons.

The nuclear deal includes a 15-year ban on “the production or acquisition of plutonium or uranium metals and their alloys”. In addition, the pact provides that Iran could be allowed to begin investigating the production of uranium fuel “in small quantities” after 10 years, but only with the permission of the other signatories.

On Monday, the agreement between Iran and the UN was severely condemned by the Iranian parliament, which called it a “violation” of the law. Regarding the dispute between Hassan Rohani’s government and Parliament, Khamenei noted that “Such differences can be resolved and the two sides must cooperate” to achieve this because “it could be interpreted as a division in the country.”

In his speech to the Assembly of Experts, the Iranian Supreme Leader also referred to recent criticism from the United States and the three European countries signatories to the nuclear deal (France, United Kingdom and Germany) regarding violations by Tehran of the pact. “They used arrogant and unfair rhetoric about Iran. They continue to question why Iran has stopped honoring its JCPOA (acronym in English) commitments, but they don’t mention that they never fulfilled their own commitments ”, he denounced.

He also asserted that despite the measures adopted by Iran, his country “does not seek (possess) nuclear weapons based on Islamic motives”.

With information from AFP and EFE

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