Iranian Foreign Ministry Javad Zarif confirmed Monday that Tehran has breached the 2015 nuclear deal by stockpiling over 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of enriched uranium, Iranian Students’ News Agency has reported.
“According to its previously announced plans, Iran has exceeded the 300 kilogram limit of enriched uranium stockpile,” Zarif said.
At the same time, the foreign ministry’s spokesman said that Tehran’s steps to decrease its commitments under the deal are “reversible” and urged Europe to accelerate its efforts to save the deal.
“The way INSTEX is being implemented and according to the messages [about this], it is not what Iran and our nation wanted. So the consultations continue,” Mousavi said, as quoted by IRIB broadcaster.
Earlier in the day, Fars news agency said that Iran had exceeded the 300 kilograms (660 pounds) limit for the enriched uranium stockpile, set out by the nuclear deal.
“The stockpile of the uranium enriched at 3.67 percent exceeded 300 kilograms,” the source told the agency, adding that the information has been confirmed by the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The news comes several days after Iran’s envoy to a meeting of the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord said that European countries had offered too little at last-ditch talks to persuade Tehran to back off from its plans to breach limits imposed by the deal.
The envoy’s words echoed a statement made earlier the same day by the Iranian Foreign Ministry that said, Tehran would make another decisive step in reducing its obligations under the JCPOA if the EU Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) didn’t meet Tehran’s requirements.
INSTEX was formally launched by France, Germany and the United Kingdom to facilitate trade with Iran in the face of US sanctions, but Iran has since criticised the tool as a weak measure with limited capacity. EU countries have said that the mechanism will initially deal with food and medicine, while Tehran has sought oil trade to be included.
On May 8, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Tehran would not be carrying out “some [of its] voluntary commitments” to the JCPOA, as the EU and other states had failed to resist pressure from the US, who pulled out of the accord last year and re-imposed sanctions on Iran. Since then, Iran has increased uranium enrichment fourfold.
Tehran’s move to increase the rate of enriching uranium came as a response to the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. Following the withdrawal in 2018, the US has reinstated all sanctions against Tehran and has imposed even more restrictive measures against the Middle Eastern country. The US move was also slammed by other signatories of the deal, including the European Union, which insisted that Tehran fully complied with the treaty and have urged the US not to reimpose sanctions.
Commentary by The Iranian
So what does this mean and where does Iran/world go from here? The following analysis comes via Joe Cirincione, President of Ploughshares, a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons.
Trump violated the nuclear accord over a year ago. This is a minor – and entirely predictable – response by Iran. https://t.co/rEOagzNSwc
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
What does it mean that Iran has techinically breeched one of the limits of the historic anti-nuclear deal? It is not a sprint to a bomb. They are a long way away. This is more message than threat. Let me explain with just a few facts. 1/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
Iran had over 10,000kg of low-enriched uranium gas (LEU) before the agreement. They were required to ship 98% of it out of the country. They were left with a token amount of 300kg at 3.5% purity. 2/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
It takes about 1,050kg of LEU to make the core of one bomb. They would have to further enrich it in centrifuges until they had about 25kg of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) at about 90% purity. Then they could fashion that into metal and shape it into a bomb core. 3/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
Before the accord, Iran had over 19,000 centrifuges they could have used to spin that LEU into HEU. It would have taken a few weeks. They now have only 3-4,000 operating. It would take at least a year to make enough HEU now. 4/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
We would see it happening, thanks to the intrusive inspections required by the accord. Remember, the US violated the accord over a year ago but all the other nations are still in it. Up until now, Iran has been observing all of it, despite the massive sanctions the US imposed. 6/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
Iran has been exporting any LEU they made above the 300kg limit – but just two months ago the US imposed sanctions on any country that bought it. They are continuing to slowly produce it, but are now stockpiling it. It seems the amount will slowly grow by tens of kilograms. 7/
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
In other words, this breech can be stopped either by Iran not making any more, or by the US dropping those sanctions and letting them export it. Better yet, the US could agree to get fully back in the deal that was working well- it blocked all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb. 8/8
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019
