DUBAI, UAE (Iran) – Iran began enriching uranium on Friday until it obtained its highest purity limiting Tehran near arms levels, trying to pressure negotiators in Vienna amid talks over restoration of its nuclear deal with world powers after an attack on its main site of enrichment.
A senior official said that only a few grams per hour of uranium gas would be enriched up to 60% purity, three times the level it once did, but in a much lower amount than it could produce. Islamic Republic. Iran is also enriching itself with a field facility at its Natanz nuclear site that has already been visited by international inspectors, not in the depths of its hardened underground rooms to withstand airstrikes.
The narrow scope of the new enrichment provides Iran with a way to slow down quickly if it chooses, experts say, but time is running out. Iranian presidential elections are on the horizon, as Tehran already threatens to limit international inspections. Israel, suspected of carrying out Sunday’s sabotage in Natanz, could also act again amid a long shadow war between the two rivals in the Middle East.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf announced the biggest enrichment on Twitter.
“Iranian young scientists and believers managed to get a 60% enriched uranium product,” Qalibaf said. “I congratulate the brave nation of Islamic Iran for this success. The willpower of the Iranian nation is miraculous and can deactivate any conspiracy. “
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, the country’s civilian nuclear arm, later acknowledged the move to 60%. Ali Akbar Salehi told Iranian state television that centrifuges now produce 9 grams per hour, but that would drop to 5 grams per hour in the coming days.
“Any level of enrichment we want is within our reach right now and we can do it anytime we want,” Salehi said.
It was unclear why the first announcement came from Qalibaf, a former leader of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, already nominated as a potential presidential candidate in Iran’s upcoming June elections..
While 60% is above any level that Iran has previously enriched uranium, it is still below 90% weapons grade levels. Iran had become rich by up to 20%, and even this meant a brief technical step up to the qualification of weapons. The deal limited Iran’s enrichment to 3.67%.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which controls Iran’s nuclear program, did not respond to any requests for comment. Earlier this week, he sent his inspectors to Natanz and confirmed that Iran was preparing to start a 60% enrichment in a field facility on the site.
Israel, which has twice bombed Middle Eastern countries to halt its nuclear programs, is scheduled to hold a meeting of its top security officials on Sunday over the Iranian announcement. Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi described Iran as a threat during a trip to Cyprus on Friday.
“Israel is determined to defend itself against any attempt to harm its sovereignty or its citizens and will do whatever is necessary to prevent this radical and anti-Semitic regime from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Ashkenazi said.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, although the West and the IAEA say Tehran had a military nuclear program in place until the end of 2003. An annual U.S. intelligence report released on Tuesday maintained the US assessment that “Iran is not taking over the nuclear power plant the weapons development activities we judge would be necessary to produce a nuclear device.”
Earlier, Iran had said it could use up to 60% enriched uranium for nuclear-powered ships. However, the Islamic Republic does not currently have these vessels in its navy.
The threat of further enrichment by Iran had already provoked criticism from the United States and three European nations in the agreement: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. On Friday, European Union spokesman Peter Stano described Iran’s decision as “a very worrying development”.
“There is no credible explanation or civil justification for this action alongside Iran,” Stano said. The Vienna talks are aimed at “ensuring that we take back these steps that take Iran away from fulfilling its commitments and obligations.”
Diplomats met again on Friday in Vienna. Following talks on Thursday, Chinese negotiator Wang Qun called for the elimination of “all disruptive factors by advancing as quickly as we can in the work of the negotiations, especially by reducing the lifting of sanctions to zero.”
The 2015 nuclear deal, from which former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. in 2018, prevented Iran from storing enough enriched uranium to be able to pursue a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. .
The weekend attack on Natanz was initially described only as a power outage that fed both ground workshops and underground enrichment rooms, but Iranian officials later began calling it an attack. .
Alireza Zakani, the head of the Iranian parliament’s research center, referred to “several thousand damaged and destroyed centrifuges” in a state television interview. However, no other official has offered this figure and no images of the sequels have been posted.
In the coming weeks, Iran has threatened to further impede IAEA inspections and potentially destroy the video recordings it now has at its facilities.. Meanwhile, it continues to use advanced centrifuges and gain knowledge in high enrichment, which worries non-proliferation experts.
“As the agreement has begun to unravel, Iran has begun to gain more knowledge on how to operate more advanced machines,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association with its in Washington. “This particular operation, which enriches 60%, will give you even more information.”
In using a term used to describe the dilution of rich enriched uranium, Kimball added: “This knowledge cannot be mixed. It cannot be reversed “.
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The writers of the Associated Press, Nasser Karimi, in Tehran, Iran; Akram fares in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Samuel Petrequin in Brussels; and David Rising and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.