By Heather Wuest, July 9, 2019
Behrouz Kamalvandi spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. Credit: Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador via Wikimedia Commons.
Since the United States pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal, reimposition of US sanctions regimes against Iran has put pressure on the Iranian economy. In response, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization announced last week that Iran had surpassed the maximum quantity of low enriched uranium Iran is allowed to possess under the deal. This announcement was calculated to signal to the world that Iran would not continue to comply with the mandates of the nuclear deal if it was not provided with economic relief it originally signed the deal to get.
Now another week has passed and Iran has again upped the ante. The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization made a new announcement now declaring that Iran had enriched uranium above the maximum cap of 3.6 percent set by the Iran nuclear deal to 4.5 percent. This level of enrichment is still much lower than the 90 percent enrichment level that is needed to produce a nuclear weapon, but the question is now clear: If the international community remains silent what will the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization announce next?
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Javad Zarif said they "eventually" need the 4,5% uranium for one of their power plant. It's not an urgent project, and that's why they could wait 2 months, but now that it's clear they're not getting anything in return for complying they're scaling back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9SGOas2Tc