Iran Officially Halts Some Nuclear Commitments

Date: 15 May 2019 - 21:18

News ID: ۶۶۰۱۹

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran has officially stopped some commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following an order from its national security council, an informed official in the country’s atomic energy body said Wednesday.
Last week, Iran notified China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom of its decision to halt some commitments under the nuclear deal, a year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed sanctions.
Under the nuclear deal, Tehran was allowed to produce low-enriched uranium with a 300-kg limit, and produce heavy water with a stock capped around 130 tonnes. Tehran could ship the excess amounts out of the country for storage or sale.
The official said Iran has no limit from now for production of enriched uranium and heavy water.
Iran’s initial moves do not appear to violate the nuclear deal yet. But Iran has warned that unless the world powers protect Iran’s economy from U.S. sanctions within 60 days, Iran would start enriching uranium at higher level.
The deal also caps the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67 percent. It is also well below the 20 percent level to which Iran enriched uranium before the deal.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Tehran would not negotiate with the United States on another nuclear deal.
Senior negotiator Abbas Araqchi said last week Iran has put a "step-by-step" withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on the agenda.
"We have not left the JCPOA so far, but we have put such a move on our agenda and that will happen step by step," he said.
The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) also said the country has a host of different measures to take if its nuclear case is sent back to the UN Security Council.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will take drastic and major steps to realize the right of the Iranian nation," Behrouz Kamalvandi told Press TV when asked about Iran's possible reaction if the case was sent back to the Security Council.
"We have so far talked about different measures. It could be leaving the deal and it could be other actions as to the NPT (the Non-Proliferation Treaty) or any other things," he said.
"If they take Iran's case to the Security Council, they will ruin the deal ... and the deal will not be alive anymore," Kamalvandi added.
The official said the main objective of the JCPOA was to remove sanctions against Iran, but the restrictive measures are still in place despite Tehran’s full compliance.