Iranian regime has started manufacturing uranium metal, another violation of 2015 nuclear deal

The Iranian regime has started to manufacture uranium metal, a new violation of the nuclear agreement signed in 2015, as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors compliance with the pact, reported on Wednesday.

On February 8, this UN agency “verified 3.6 grams of uranium metal at the Isfahan plant” (in the center of the country), according to a statement sent to the AFP.

The question is sensitive since uranium metal can be used to make nuclear weapons.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi informed the Member States of this new stage, which, according to Tehran, aims to “produce fuel” as part of research and development activities.

The joint global action plan (JCPO) they signed in 2015 Iran and six great powers (China, United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia and Germany) include a 15-year ban on “the production or acquisition of plutonium or uranium metals and their alloys”.

The pact provides that Iran it could be allowed to start investigating uranium fuel production “in small quantities” after 10 years, but only with the permission of the other signatories.

The news comes amid high expectations from the international community that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, go back on the decision of your predecessor, Donald Trump, and lead your country again towards the agreement signed in 2015 with Iran.

Biden, however, made the negotiations conditional on Tehran once again complying with all the requirements of the agreement, that it has gradually violated since the United States left the pact in 2018.

The month later, the Iranian regime resumed 20% uranium enrichment, shattering another of the pillars of the JCPO, which provides for the lifting of sanctions against the country in exchange for guarantees from Tehran that it does not seek a military nuclear program. .

Parade in Tehran for the 42nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution

Along with the IAEA report, thousands of Iranians marched across the country on Wednesday by car to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“No gatherings or parades” on the anniversary of the Shah’s overthrow in 1979, state television reported several times in the morning, due to the viral pandemic.

Thus the streets of Tehran welcomed a parade of vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles in the direction of Azadi Square. Some painted their cars red, white and green, the colors of the Iranian flag, which many have stolen, reporters from the AFP.

“This year has only changed the form of walking, not the nature of it,” a public television reporter said, adding that some drivers chanted slogans such as “Death in the United States!”

The demonstrators carried portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and General Qasem Soleimani, the architect of Iranian strategy in the Middle East and killed in January 2020 in Baghdad by an American drone.

Similar marches were also held in other cities across the country, such as Shiraz (south), Qom, Isfahan and Mashad (east), according to images released by the public network.

In a televised address, the President, Hassan Rohani, congratulated the Iranians for “their patience in the face of three years of suffering”, after former US President Trump decided to reinstate sanctions in 2018, after leaving the JPCO, as part of his “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.

“The era of maximum sanctions is over, the era of economic warfare is over”, Rouhani said, saying that “everyone has realized that maximum pressure has failed”.

With information from AFP

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