Iran insists that it can enrich uranium to 90% purity – weapon grade – if necessary

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DUBAI, Jul 14 (Reuters) – Iran said Wednesday it could enrich uranium to up to 90% purity – weapon quality – if its nuclear reactors needed it, but added that it is still reviving a 2015 deal seek its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of the sanctions.

President Hassan Rouhani’s remark is his second public comment this year about a 90% enrichment – a level suitable for a nuclear bomb – and underscores Iran’s determination to continue breaking the deal if it fails to reach its agreement Resuscitation there. Continue reading

The main obstacle to making nuclear weapons is getting enough fissile material – highly enriched, weapon-grade uranium or plutonium – to hold the core of the bomb.

Iran says it never looked for nuclear weapons.

“Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency can enrich uranium by 20% and 60%, and if our reactors need it one day, it can enrich uranium to 90% purity,” Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting, Iranian state media reported.

The nuclear deal limits the fissile purity to which Tehran can refine uranium to 3.67%, well below the 20% achieved before the pact and well below the 90% suitable for a nuclear weapon.

Iran violated the deal in a number of ways after the United States withdrew from the deal in 2018, including producing 20% ​​and 60% enriched uranium.

Rouhani, who will hand over the presidency to hardliner Ebrahim Raisi on August 5, implicitly criticized Iran’s top decision-makers for “not allowing” his government to reinstate the nuclear deal during his term in office.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 1, 2019 on the sidelines of a meeting of the Eurasian Supreme Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia. Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin via REUTERS

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“You have robbed this government of the chance to reach an agreement. We deeply regret having missed this opportunity,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Rouhani as saying.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not the President, has the final say on all state affairs such as nuclear policy.

Like Khamenei, Raisi has supported indirect talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at bringing archenemies back into full compliance with the deal. Former US President Donald Trump canceled the deal three years ago on the grounds that he was biased in favor of Iran and again imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.

The sixth round of nuclear talks in Vienna was interrupted on June 20. The next round of talks is still pending, and Iranian and Western officials have said significant gaps remain to be filled.

Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that President-elect Raisi planned to take “a tougher line” in post-office talks, adding that the next round could resume in late September or early October.

One of the officials said many members of the Iranian nuclear team could be replaced by hardliners, but the top nuclear weapons negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, would stay “at least for a while”.

The second official said Raisi plans to show “less flexibility and more concessions” from Washington, such as maintaining a chain of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges and insisting on lifting US sanctions on human rights and terrorism.

Trump blacklisted dozens of institutions vital to the Iranian economy and used laws designed to punish foreign actors for supporting terrorism or arms proliferation.

Lifting oil and financial sanctions are essential if Iran is to export its oil, the highest price Tehran has to pay for complying with the nuclear deal and curbing its nuclear program.

Letter from Parisa Hafezi; Adaptation by Jason Neely, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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