'Nuclear extortion': US denounces Iran's plan to step up uranium enrichment
US-Iran conflict
The United States on Monday denounced Iran's planto step up uranium enrichment as "nuclear extortion,"breaching a 2015 nuclear pact with major powers and possibly complicating efforts by USPresident-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal.
US State Department said, "Iran enriching uranium to 20 per cent at Fordow is a clear attempt to increase its campaign of nuclear extortion, an attempt that will continue to fail."
"We have confidence that the IAEA will monitor and report on any new Iranian nuclear activities," the spokesperson said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The enrichment decision,Iran's latest contravention of the accord, coincides with increasing tensions betweenIranand the United States in the last days of President Donald Trump's administration.
Tehran started violating the accord in 2019 in a step-by-step response to Trump's withdrawal from it in 2018 and the reimposition of USsanctions lifted under the deal.
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The agreement's main aim was to extend the timeIranwould need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it chose to, to at least a year from roughly two to three months. It also lifted international sanctions against Tehran.
"A few minutes ago, the process of producing 20 per centenriched uranium has started in Fordow enrichment complex," government spokesman Ali Rabiei toldIranian state media.
The UN watchdog confirmed that Iran stepped up the enrichment at its underground Fordow facility in Tehran's biggest breach yet of a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under former President Barack Obama.
Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed crippling sanctions in violation of the accord.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said after the enrichment announcement that his country would return to full compliance if all countries do,a signal to Biden to remove sanctions.
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister ofIran's arch-foe Israel, said the move was aimed at developing nuclear weapons and Israel would never allow Tehran to build them.
Tehran's move could hinder efforts to salvage the nuclear pact as its breaches have increasingly worried some of the deal's other parties, which have urgedIranto act responsibly.
However, it could also be accumulating bargaining chips that could be negotiated away in talks with the Biden administration.
Iranhad earlier breached the deal's 3.67per centlimit on the purity to which it can enrich uranium, but it had only gone up to 4.5 per centso far, well short of the 20per centlevel and of the 90per centthat is weapons-grade.
USintelligence agencies and the IAEA believeIranhad a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons programme that it halted in 2003.Irandenies ever having had one.