Iran said on Saturday it plans to enrich uranium by up to 20% in Fordo’s underground nuclear facilities “as soon as possible,” moving its program away from a technical step away from weapons levels as it increases pressure on the West by the disorderly atomic agreement.
The move comes amid intense tensions between Iran and the United States in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration, which unilaterally withdrew America from the 2018 Tehran nuclear deal.
This set off a series of incidents that ended with a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad a year ago, a birthday that comes next Sunday that has U.S. officials worried about the possible retaliation by Iran.
Iran’s decision to start getting rich up to 20% a decade ago sparked an Israeli strike at its nuclear facilities, tensions that only eased with the 2015 atomic agreement. 20% enrichment, it will be seen that the return of the quality of art.
Even Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the U.S.-educated U.S. Atomic Energy Civil Organization, offered a military analogy to describe his agency’s willingness to take the next step.
“We’re like soldiers and our fingers are on the triggers,” Salehi told Iranian state television. “The commander should command and we will shoot. We are ready for that and we will produce (20% enriched uranium) as soon as possible.”
Iran’s decision comes after Parliament passed a bill, later passed by a constitutional oversight body, aimed at enriching hiking to pressure Europe to provide relief from sanctions. It also serves as pressure ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he is willing to re-enter the nuclear deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged that Iran had informed its inspectors of the decision in a letter after news broke on Friday.
“Iran has informed the agency that in order to comply with a legal act recently approved by the country’s parliament, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran intends to produce low-enriched uranium … up to 20 per cent at the Fordo fuel enrichment plant “. said the IAEA in a statement.
The IAEA added that Iran did not say when it planned to increase enrichment, although the agency “has inspectors present in Iran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have regular access. a Fordo “. The parliamentary bill also called on Iran to expel these inspectors, although it appears Tehran has not yet decided to take that step.
Salehi said Iran should change the natural uranium from centrifuges to Fordo to get materials already enriched at 4% to start the process of going to 20%.
“It should be done under the supervision of the IAEA,” Salehi added.
Since the collapse of the agreement, Iran has resumed enrichment in Fordo, near the Shiite holy city of Qom, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran.
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Protected by mountains, Fordo is surrounded by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to make one suspect that U.S. officials had a military purpose when they publicly exposed the site in 2009.
The 2015 agreement allowed Iran to agree to limit its enrichment in exchange for easing sanctions. The agreement also called for Fordo to become a center for research and development.
Under former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran began 20% enrichment. Israel, which has its own undeclared nuclear weapons program, feared Tehran would build a bomb.
After the discovery of Fordo, the United States worked on so-called “bunker buster” bombs designed to attack these facilities. When Israel threatened at one point to bomb Iranian nuclear sites like Fordo, U.S. officials reportedly showed them a video of a bunker bomb destroying a model of Fordo in the southwestern desert of America.
Israel, which under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to criticize Iran’s nuclear program, offered no immediate comment on Saturday.
At present, Iran enriches uranium to 4.5%, violating the agreement limit of 3.67%. Experts say Iran now has enough storage of low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons, if it chose to pursue them. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran has begun separate construction of a new site in Fordo, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press in December.
Iran’s announcement coincides with the anniversary of the American drone that last year attacked Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. That attack later saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic missile strike wounding dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane that night and killed all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached, the United States sent B-52 bombers flying over the region and sent a nuclear-powered submarine into the Persian Gulf.
On Thursday, sailors discovered a carpet mine at a Persian Gulf oil tanker near Iraq near the Iranian border as they prepared to transfer fuel to another oil company owned by a listed company. of New York. No one has taken responsibility for the mining, although it comes after a series of similar attacks in 2019 that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran. Tehran denied being involved.
In November, an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier died in an attack that Tehran blamed on Israel.