The Truth Of The Iranian Deal

Tehran’s Nuclear Program

Iran nuclear chief threatens new uranium enrichment

BY: Charles Hoskinson April 10, 2015 | 10:15 am

Iran can resume enriching uranium to higher levels at “any time” if the international community doesn’t live up to its commitments under a proposed nuclear deal, the head of Iran’s nuclear program said.

Ali Akbar Salehi also said in a nationally televised speech Thursday night that foreign companies, including those from the United States, would be required to supply Iran what it needs for the Arak heavy water reactor under any deal.

Salehi’s speech is the latest in a string of public remarks by top Iranian officials that have systematically unraveled what President Obama has called a “historic understanding” that was supposed to lead to a permanent deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program and preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.

“Regarding the 20-percent [enriched] uranium, any time that the opposite side does not live up to its commitments, we can join two cascades of centrifuges to produce more than five kilos of 20-percent uranium,” Salehi was quoted by state-controlled Press TV as saying.

The U.S. fact sheet about the framework announced April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Iran and the P5+1 countries — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — says Iran has agreed not to enrich uranium beyond 3.67 percent for 15 years or build any new facilities to enrich uranium during that period.

But the fact sheet also notes that Iran would not be required to destroy any of its existing infrastructure beyond the 6,104 centrifuges allowed to operate under a proposed deal. The rest would be placed in storage under monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Keeping Iran from enriching uranium to 20 percent is crucial, because it exponentially increases the time needed to create a bomb-grade stock of the radioactive element. In a November 2013 interim deal, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium to that level.

The only thing Iran has agreed to destroy under the framework, according to the U.S. side, is the core of the reactor at Arak, which was the focus of concerns that it might be used to develop weapons-grade plutonium. The reactor is to be converted to a facility limited to peaceful research.

Salehi’s threat to resume higher-level enrichment comes in the context of sharp disagreements between Iran and the United States on what, if anything, was agreed to at Lausanne.

On Thursday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader, discounted the idea that any agreement was reached at all, and accused the United States of lying about the status of the talks.