Iran says ‘no longer abiding by uranium enrichment limit’

Bloomberg

Iran said it was no longer abiding by limits imposed on its uranium enrichment and centrifuge research by the 2015 nuclear accord, throwing down a new challenge to European leaders struggling to sustain their diplomatic push to calm the Gulf.
The Islamic Republic will forge ahead with plans to develop its advanced centrifuges and has started injecting them with gas, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said at a press conference — a breach of a time-frame agreed within the deal that aimed to prevent Iran from developing nucler weapons.
He said that while Iran will “set aside” restrictions on uranium enrichment it has no need as yet to enrich uranium beyond 20 percent, a level halted by the nuclear accord and required for research reactors. Weapons-grade uranium needs to have an enrichment level of 90 percent or more. Injecting advanced “IR-6” centrifuges — a chain of 20 of which Iran installed in April — with gas is a step Iran is allowed to take 11 years into the implementation of the nuclear deal, Kamalvandi said.
Centrifuges are fast-spinning machines used to enrich uranium, and the latest statement by Iran is likely to trigger claims by its foes that the Islamic Republic is intent on rebuilding an atomic programme capable of producing nuclear weapons.
“I’m not surprised that Iran has announced that it’s going to violate” the nuclear deal, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at a press conference with his French counterpart Florence Parly in Paris shortly after Iran’s announcement.
Parly, whose country is leading a European attempt at salvaging the deal with a plan that requires the US to ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports, said diplomatic efforts will continue in order to “get Iran to come back into compliance.”
Iran has been scaling back its compliance to the terms of the beleaguered deal as it pushes back against the “maximum pressure” offensive of US President Donald Trump, who unilaterally left the accord last year.

Deal ‘Intact’
Kamalvandi said that while its latest actions may amount to Iran ceasing compliance to technical aspects of the accord, they were “reversible within a day” and the agreement itself remained intact.
Russia, a signatory of the original deal along with the US, France, the UK, China and Germany, played down concerns over Iran’s move. “Decision of Iran to use more advanced
centrifuges shouldn’t be over-dramatised,” the Russian ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter.
While conceding that it marks “another deviation” from the Iran nuclear deal, the Russian diplomat said it isn’t a proliferation threat but “a strong signal” that the agreement must be revived.
Iran will not take any action against international nuclear inspections or the work of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Kamalvandi said, adding that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the head of Iran’s atomic organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, will meet with the acting Director General of the IAEA, Cornel Feruta, on Sunday.
“The EU said it would fulfill its commitments under the nuclear deal and it’s supposed to live up to that. This is meant to make them think. If they refer to their conscience they will realise that the Islamic Republic has made good on all of its obligations and it’s they who haven’t fulfilled all their commitments and it’s they who need to take action,” Kamalvandi said, adding that new centrifuges will not be installed at its Fordow enrichment plant.
US sanctions have targeted Iran’s vital oil exports and a French proposal orchestrated by President Emmanuel Macron to deliver the economic benefits demanded by Iran, and in turn salvage the deal, includes a $15 billion credit line against which Tehran can sell crude.