Iran on Monday breached the 300-kg limit on its stockpile oflow-enriched uranium set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that thecountry increased the level of its low-enriched uranium production as it hadannounced earlier “in line with Articles 26 and 36 of the 2015 nuclear deal”,officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Press TVreported.
The move is thought to be Tehran’s first major breach of theaccord since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 andreimposed sanctions on Tehran.
The deal, which Iran had signed with the P5+1 group ofcountries — the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany — in July2015 had limited its uranium enrichment in exchange for an easing ofinternational sanctions.
“According to my information, Iran has surpassed the300 kg limit (in producing low-enriched uranium) and we had already announced(that we were planning to do) this,” Zarif, one of the chief architects ofthe deal, told ISNA news agency.
Calling Tehran’s latest moves “reversible”,Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said: “We told the Europeansthat if more practical, mature and complete measures were taken, Iran’sreduction (to its) commitments could be reversed. Otherwise, we willcontinue.”
Tehran had threatened to surpass the maximum permittedamount of enriched uranium in retaliation to crippling US economic sanctions.
During talks in Vienna on Friday, European countries stillparty to the deal made a last-ditch effort to persuade Iran to back off fromplans to breach the limit.
Earlier, Fars news agency cited a source as saying thatInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors had measured the stockpileon Monday and confirmed that it had surpassed the cap.
An IAEA spokesman told the BBC that it was aware of thereports, adding: “Our inspectors are on the ground and they will report toheadquarters as soon as the LEU (low-enriched uranium) stockpile has beenverified.”
Iran said in May that it had quadrupled its production oflow enriched uranium. The announcement increased tensions in the region and setoff a series of provocative moves by Washington and Tehran.