Tehran:
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani mentioned Wednesday its selection to enhance uranium enrichment to 60 % was a response to Israel’s “terrorism,” days just after an attack on its Natanz nuclear facility.
“Enabling IR-6 (centrifuges) at Natanz today, or bringing enrichment to 60 percent: this is the response to your malice,” Rouhani mentioned in a message aimed at arch-enemy Israel, in televised remarks.
“What you did was nuclear terrorism. What we do is legal,” he mentioned, referring to a blast early Sunday that knocked out electrical energy at its most important nuclear facility in central Iran.
Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kazem Gharibabadi, wrote on Twitter that enrichment to greater purity was beginning and that “we expect to accumulate the product next week” from centrifuges at Natanz.
Iran’s announcement of stepped-up enrichment, created Tuesday, has cast a shadow more than talks in Vienna aimed at salvaging the tattered 2015 nuclear deal among Iran and globe powers that then US president Donald Trump abandoned 3 years ago.
The step will bring Iran closer to the 90 % purity threshold for military use and shorten its prospective “breakout time” to construct an atomic bomb — a purpose the Islamic republic denies.
Under the nuclear deal, Iran had committed to retain enrichment to 3.67 %, even though it had stepped this up to 20 % in January.
Iran has mentioned it needs the more hugely enriched uranium for healthcare purposes.
Gharibabadi mentioned in his tweet that the new material “will improve significantly both the quality and quantity of radiopharmaceutical products”.
Israel, which did not claim duty for the Natanz explosion, has generally vowed it will quit Iran from ever constructing an atomic bomb which it would take into consideration an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Israel is strongly opposed to US President Joe Biden’s efforts to revive the nuclear agreement among Iran and the UN Security Council’s permanent members plus Germany.
The accord, agreed when Biden was vice president to Barack Obama, promised Tehran relief from punishing sanctions in return for agreeing to limits on its nuclear programme.
The United States mentioned Tuesday it stood by Israel but remained committed to the Iran talks regardless of Tehran’s enrichment program.
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