Iran is negotiating, and at the same time provoking: it has already succeeded in enriching uranium to 60%

Iran announced yesterday that it was starting to produce 60% enriched uranium, in a new and spectacular violation of its commitments to the international community, concerned about its nuclear ambitions, and in indirect talks to relaunch the pact that Donald Trump is advancing in Vienna. abandoned in 2018.

This is one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for Joe Biden, who has announced his intention to bring his country back to the Joint Comprehensive Action Pact (Jcpoa), signed in 2015 by the five permanent members of the Council. Security Council, plus Germany and the EU.

“Now we are getting nine grams per hour” of 60% enriched uranium, said Atomic Energy Organization of Iran President Ali Akbar Salehi.

Earlier, the Tasnim agency reported that the Natanz enrichment plant in central Iran had started producing this material, which would bring the Islamic Republic closer to the 90% refinement threshold, allowing a nuclear application.

Natanz scientists continue to “work on installing the two centrifuge lines” aimed at producing 60% enriched uranium, Salehi added.

For his part, the president of the Iranian Parliament, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, underlined through his account on the social network Twitter that “young and pious Iranian scientists were able to obtain 60% of enriched uranium”.

“We congratulate the courageous people of Islamic Iran for this achievement. The will of the Iranian people is miraculous and will put an end to any conspiracy, ”he added.

After the explosion recorded on Sunday at the Natanz enrichment plant, for which Tehran accused Israel, the Islamic Republic announced on Tuesday that it would enrich uranium to 60%, well above the 20% it practice since January and the maximum threshold. 3.67% set by the international agreement signed in Vienna in 2015 on the Iranian nuclear program.

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani stressed that the decision to start enriching 60% uranium “is a response to evil. You cannot commit these crimes. If you do, we’ll cut off both of your hands. By modernizing the juicers and upgrading them to 60%, we are cutting both your hands off, ”he said.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting last Wednesday, Rouhani reiterated that for Tehran, the explosion of the Nasaz factory was “an attack by the Zionist regime”, as Iran always refers to Israel.

“If the Zionists act against the Iranian nation, we will respond to them,” the president warned. But, at the same time, our nuclear activities are peaceful and under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ”he added.

Positive impression. The announcement of the start of 60% uranium production coincides with negotiations in Vienna to save the pact, from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 at the initiative of then-President Donald Trump.

The announcement, which several analysts have called a “provocation”, is the last step, and also the most notable, that the Islamic Republic has taken to date to move away from the commitments made in the Vienna accord.

In retaliation for the US withdrawal from the agreement and the reinstatement of US sanctions against Iran, Tehran began to violate its commitments from May 2019.

Thursday, in Vienna, a new session of discussions took place in order to bring Washington to join the pact and to lift its sanctions against Iran. This session left “a generally positive impression,” said Russian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.

On Wednesday, Germany, France and the UK, which along with Russia, China and Iran have signed the Vienna Accord, said Iran’s announcement to enrich uranium at 60% caused “great concern”.

However, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani said these “concerns” were unfounded. “Today we can even enrich 90% if we wish,” said the president. “But we said it from day one and we keep our word: our nuclear activities are peaceful, we do not want to equip ourselves with the atomic bomb,” he said.

Yesterday, the European Union insisted that the open process in the Joint Nuclear Deal Committee to get the United States back was still underway, despite Iran’s announcement, which threatened also to withdraw from the dialogue if progress is not made. . “The process is ongoing and focuses on all diplomatic options to find a way out and not have to face issues like Iran’s escalation. The work is still in progress, ”said EU Foreign Affairs spokesperson Peter Stano.

Failure. The firmness of the Iranian response reveals the failure of Trump’s “strong hand” policy towards Tehran. After abandoning the pact signed by Obama, deeming it very weak and incapable of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, he imposed severe economic sanctions on the Ayatollah regime, with the intention of weakening its leaders , to strengthen the internal opposition and, finally, to lead the country. to accept a new pact, with more severe conditions.

None of this happened and, in part, the consequences were reversed. Iran survived, with great hardship, the sanctions, the opposition did not go beyond demonstrations, some violent, but very concentrated, and the situation reinforced the “hawks” within the regime, which reject all negotiations with Washington and hope to reaffirm their power in the next elections in June.

In his message to cabinet, Rouhani openly referred to these sectors. “Some are afraid of the Vienna talks. They fear that these negotiations will soon yield results and that the sanctions will be lifted immediately, and they may therefore run into problems during the elections, ”the president said.

“No faction or individual has the right to take the livelihoods of the people hostage to win the elections,” he added.

“We are strong, we will negotiate with the United States and teach them a lesson, as we have done before. We have a strong negotiating logic and we can persuade the enemy, ”concluded the Iranian president.