United States President Donald Trump on Sunday warned Iran against further uranium enrichment, AFP reported. “Iran better be careful, because you enrich for one reason, and I will not tell you what that reason is,” he told reporters. “But it is no good. They better be careful.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had said on July 3 that by Sunday Tehran would exceed the uranium enrichment limit set under the nuclear deal it had signed with European powers and the United States in 2015. On Sunday, Tehran said it was hours away from doing so, Al Jazeera reported.
A spokesperson for Iran’s atomic agency said technical preparations for the new level of enrichment would be completed “within a few hours and enrichment over 3.67% will begin”. “And tomorrow [Monday] early in the morning, when the IAEA takes the sample we would have gone beyond 3.67%,” he added.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would keep reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal every 60 days unless the signatories to the pact protected it from sanctions imposed by the US.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iran of more sanctions. “Iran’s latest expansion of its nuclear program will lead to further isolation and sanctions,” he tweeted. “Nations should restore the longstanding standard of no enrichment for Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s regime, armed with nuclear weapons, would pose an even greater danger to the world.”
Iran has often threatened to cross the 300-kg limit of uranium stockpile unless it gets some relief from the sanctions. The other signatories of the nuclear deal are struggling to keep it afloat after Donald Trump walked out of it last year.
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