Tehran breaches agreed 3.67% limit and hints it could soon start enriching to 20%

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Iran has enriched uranium beyond the key limit dictated in its 2015 deal with major powers, in the latest escalation of the crisis between Washington and Tehran.

The move, confirmed by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, came amid hints from Iran that it could start enriching to 20% later in the year unless it secured European help in the face of crippling US sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the body tasked with verifying Iranian compliance, said on Monday that Iran had breached the 3.67% enrichment limit, a move previously flagged by Tehran.

A spokesman for the organisation said its director general, Yukiya Amano, had informed the IAEA board of governors that agency inspectors had verified on Monday that Iran was “enriching uranium above 3.67% U-235”.

The agency, in a report to member states, said it had verified the enrichment level using online enrichment monitors and samples had also been taken on Monday for analysis.

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The confirmation that Iran is enriching beyond the agreed limits is the second major breach of the stipulations of 2015 joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) after it was confirmed last week that Iran had also exceeded the agreed size of its stockpile of uranium.

The latest breach came as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced he was sending his top diplomatic adviser to Iran to try to help defuse tensions.

China, another signatory to the deal, accused the US of “bullying” Tehran with economic sanctions.

The latest moves come amid mounting military tensions between the US and Iran that nudged close to outright hostility before Donald Trump last month cancelled airstrikes drawn up in response to the shooting down of a US drone.

That followed a series of attacks on oil tankers in May and June that the US and UK blamed on Tehran.

The crisis over the nuclear deal has deepened as Washington has imposed sanctions eliminating the benefits Iran was meant to enjoy in return for agreeing to curbs on its nuclear programme, following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal a year ago.

The latest breach comes ahead of a specially convened meeting of the IAEA, called by the US for Wednesday to discuss the crisis. Tehran last week accused the US of being the major violator of the treaty because of its unilateral withdrawal from the deal.

Semi-official news agencies in Iran had earlier reported that the country began enriching uranium on Monday to 4.5%, breaking the limit set four years ago. While the IAEA did not specify how much beyond the threshold Iran had gone, uranium enriched to 90% is considered weapons-grade, and the enrichment is far below this level.

The Isna and Fars news agencies separately quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, saying the decision to further enrich met the needs that Iran had now.

“For now, we don’t need 20%,” Kamalvandi said in an interview with Iran’s state broadcaster. “But if we do, since we have already exceeded 3.67%, we have no limitations or obstacles to do so.”

The Iranian moves had been anticipated by diplomats and analysts who argued that the country was likely to break conditions of the JCPOA as part of its pushback against the Trump administration’s policy of “maximum pressure” and to put pressure on Europe.

Iran has set its own 60-day deadline for saving the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which it said would expire in September.

Enriching uranium up to 20% would be significant, returning Iran’s stockpiles to the level of enrichment that existed before the JCPOA.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said on Monday that if European nations “do not fulfil their commitments seriously and do not do anything more than talk, Iran’s third step will be harder, more steadfast and somehow stunning”.