The head of Iran’s nuclear program said Sunday that the Islamic Republic has begun “preliminary activities for designing” a modern process for 20-percent uranium enrichment for its 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran, signaling new danger for the nuclear deal.
Restarting enrichment at that level would mean Iran had withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, an accord that US President Donald Trump already pulled America out of in May.
However, Ali Akbar Salehi’s comments to state television appeared aimed at telling the world Iran would slowly restart its program. If it chooses, it could resume mass enrichment at its main facility in the central Iranian town of Natanz.
“Preliminary activities for designing modern 20% (enriched uranium) fuel have begun,” state TV quoted Salehi as saying.
Salehi said adding the “modern fuel” will increase efficiency in Tehran research reactor that consumes 20% enriched fuel.
“We are at the verge” of being ready, he said, without elaborating.
In June, Iran informed the UN’s nuclear watchdog that it will increase its nuclear enrichment capacity within the limits set by the 2015 agreement with world powers. Iran continues to comply with the terms of the deal, according to the UN, despite the American pullout.
Salehi heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, whose Tehran campus holds the nuclear research reactor given to the country by the US in 1967 under the rule of the shah. But in the time since that American “Atoms for Peace” donation, Iran was convulsed by its 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent takeover and hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran.
For decades since, Western nations have been concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, accusing Tehran of seeking atomic weapons. Iran long has said its program is for peaceful purposes, but it faced years of crippling sanctions.
After confirming that Israel bombed an Iranian weapons depot in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that the Jewish state will strike even harder if it proves necessary to prevent Iran from gaining a military foothold in Syria.
Netanyahu made the remarks as he toured areas in the Upper Galilee to review the end of an Israel Defense Forces operation aimed at locating and destroying tunnels dug under the border from Lebanon. Israel says the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group intended to use the tunnels for a massive assault on the country.
During the tour, the prime minister repeated his open admission, made earlier in the day at a cabinet meeting, that Israel was behind the attack on a weapons depot at Damascus International Airport on Friday night.
“This reflects our consistent policy and firm determination to prevent Iran’s military build-up in Syria, and if necessary we will also intensify these attacks,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to monitor all the activities of Hezbollah and Iran and its proxies, and we will do what is necessary to ensure Israel’s security.”
Israel typically refrains from commenting on individual airstrikes in Syria, but does generally acknowledge that it carries out raids against Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked targets in the country.
Several members of the security cabinet were reportedly frustrated with Netanyahu’s decision to publicly announce that Israel was responsible for the airstrike targeting Syria.
Anonymous officials told the Kan public broadcaster that Netanyahu’s decision to break with traditional Israeli policy of not publicly discussing such strikes was “dangerous” and could unnecessarily provoke both Russia and Syria.
Commenting on the end of IDF Operation Northern Shield, which the army says uncovered and destroyed six attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah, Netanyahu thanked the military for preventing what could have been a major Hezbollah incursion into Israeli territory.
“I think everyone understands that a serious threat has been removed,” he said. “Hezbollah’s operational plan was to use the tunnel weapon, to infiltrate many fighters, between 1,000 and 2,000 terrorists into the Galilee, to occupy communities here.”
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