VIENNA (Dispatches) -- Iran is still sticking to the 2015 nuclear accord with major powers even as tensions rise between Tehran and U.S. President Donald Trump, a UN atomic energy agency report showed Friday.
Trump has vowed to "dismantle” the "disastrous” deal and has ratcheted up U.S. sanctions, calling for Iran to be isolated and throwing his Saudi Arabia.
But the new International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran’s nuclear activities remain reduced. Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium — used for peaceful purposes — remained below the agreed limit of 300 kilograms (661 pounds), the report said.
The quarterly assessment said Iran "has not pursued the construction of the Arak… reactor” and has not enriched uranium above low purity levels.
Iran’s stock of heavy water, used as a reactor coolant, was 128.2 tons. Iran has previously inched above an agreed ceiling of 130 tons a number of times since the deal came into force and has shipped the excess abroad.
The agreement between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany was agreed in Vienna after years of rising tensions in July 2015 and came into force in January 2016.
It saw Iran reduce its nuclear program and submit to close IAEA oversight. In return, UN and Western sanctions related to the nuclear standoff were lifted, in particular on Tehran’s oil exports and unlocking billions of dollars in funds frozen oversees.
However, other sanctions related to human rights accusations and Iran’s missile activities have remained in place and have even by added to by Trump, frustrating Tehran’s efforts to boost trade.
Trump, who on Thursday announced a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, on May 17 renewed a waiver of nuclear-related U.S. sanctions on Iran but he has ordered a review of the main nuclear deal.