DUBAI, UAE – Iran began enriching uranium on Monday to levels not seen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a southern-flagged oil tanker -Korean near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a double-box challenge in the West that further increased tensions in the Middle East.
Both decisions appeared aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage during President Donald Trump’s dwindling days, the unilateral withdrawal of the atomic deal in 2018 sparked a series of rising incidents.
The increase in enrichment at its Fordo underground facilities places Tehran at a technical step of 90% weapons grade levels, while pressuring President-elect Joe Biden to negotiate quickly. The Iranian confiscation of MT Hankuk Chemi comes when a South Korean diplomat had to travel to the Islamic Republic to discuss the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in Seoul.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to acknowledge Tehran’s interest in taking advantage of the situation in a tweet about its nuclear enrichment.
“Our measures are fully reversible after full compliance by EVERYONE,” he wrote.
In Fordo, Iranian nuclear scientists under the watchful eye of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors loaded centrifuges with more than 130 kilograms (285 pounds) of low-enriched uranium to be spun up to 20%, Kazem Gharibabadi said , Permanent Representative of Iran to the UN Atomic Energy Agency. .
The IAEA later described the configuration of Fordo as three sets of two interconnected waterfalls, composed of 1,044 IR-1 centrifuges: Iran’s first-generation centrifuges. A waterfall is a group of centrifuges that work together to enrich uranium more quickly.
Iranian state television quoted government spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying that President Hassan Rouhani had ordered production to begin. It came after his parliament passed a bill, later passed by a constitutional oversight body, with the aim of increasing enrichment to pressure Europe to provide relief from sanctions.
The U.S. State Department criticized Iran’s move as a “clear attempt to increase its nuclear extortion campaign.”
“The United States and the rest of the international community will evaluate Iran’s actions,” the State Department said. “We are confident that the IAEA will monitor and report on Iran’s new nuclear activities.”
Iran informed the IAEA of its plans to increase enrichment to 20% last week.
Iran’s decision to start enriching up to 20% purity a decade ago sparked an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only eased with the 2015 atomic agreement, which saw how Iran limited enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
If the 20% enrichment is resumed, it can be seen that the return on recovery capacity is reduced. A November attack that Tehran blames on Israel killed an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier.
From Israel, which has its own undeclared nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Iran’s enrichment decision, saying that “it cannot be explained otherwise than the continuation of the realization of its goal of developing a military nuclear program “.
“Israel will not allow Iran to manufacture a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. The U.S. State Department says that, until last year, it “continued to assess that Iran is not currently involved in key activities associated with the design and development of a nuclear weapon.” This reflects previous reports from U.S. and IAEA intelligence agencies, although experts warn that Iran currently has enough low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons if it chooses to pursue them. the.
Meanwhile, the Iranian paramilitary revolutionary guard seized the MT Hankuk Chemi, with photos posted later showing their ships next to the tanker. Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com on Monday showed the tanker in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
The ship was traveling from a petrochemical plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. According to data analysis firm Refinitiv, the ship carries a container of chemicals that include methanol.
Iran allegedly seized the ship to pollute the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.
The U.S. State Department called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, accusing Iran of threatening “freedoms and rights of navigation” in the Persian Gulf to “extort the international community to ease the pressure of sanctions.”
On Monday, after business hours, calls were not answered to the ship’s owner, DM Shipping Co. Ltd. of Busan, South Korea. South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an anonymous company official as denying Iran’s claim that the ship was contaminating the water.
The captain “asked why we should go examine ourselves and got no answer,” Yonhap said.
In recent months, Iran has tried to increase pressure on South Korea to unblock some $ 7 billion in frozen assets from oil sales obtained before the Trump administration tightened sanctions on the country’s oil exports. The head of Iran’s central bank recently announced that the country was looking to use linked funds at a South Korean bank to buy coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to participating countries.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry demanded the release of the ship, saying in a statement that its crew was safe. The crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the Guard. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it was also sending its anti-piracy unit near the Hormuz Strait, which is a 4,400-ton class destroyer with about 300 troops.
Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the 5th Navy fleet based in Bahrain, said authorities were monitoring the situation. Last year, Iran also seized a British-flagged tanker and held it for months after one of its tankers was arrested off Gibraltar.
The incidents coincide with the anniversary of the attack by American drones that killed General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq, wounding dozens of U.S. troops. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane that night and killed all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached and fears of possible Iranian retaliation grew, the United States sent B-52 bombers over the region and ordered a nuclear-powered submarine in the Persian Gulf.
Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said Sunday afternoon that he changed his mind about sending the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier home from the Middle East and will instead keep the ship in service. He cited Iranian threats against Trump and other U.S. government officials as the reason for the redistribution, without detailing it.
Last week, sailors discovered a carpet mine stuck in a Persian Gulf oil tanker near Iraq near the Iranian border as it prepared to transfer fuel to another oil company owned by a company that it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. No one has claimed responsibility for the mining, although it comes after a series of similar attacks in 2019 near the Hormuz Strait that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran denied their involvement.
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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, and Robert Burns and Matthew Lee in Washington collaborated.