Middle East

Iran: We’ll Hike Uranium Enrichment by However Much We Want

UNLEASHED

President Rouhani vows to boost Tehran’s enrichment to whatever levels it needs beyond the cap from the 2015 nuclear deal.

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Reuters / Abdullah Dhiaa Al-Deen

Iran is apparently preparing to wildly overshoot the limits set for uranium enrichment in the 2015 nuclear deal, with the country’s president warning that he’ll increase the rate by “whatever amount we feel like.” Earlier this week, Iran announced it had stockpiled more low-enriched uranium than is allowed under the agreement, which Donald Trump said was “playing with fire.” But Iran is not going to stop there. “Our level of enrichment will no longer be 3.67. We will put this commitment aside by whatever amount we feel like, by whatever amount is our necessity, our need. We will take this above 3.67,” said President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday. He also said Iran would start to restore its Arak heavy-water reactor to be able to produce plutonium—a key component of a nuclear weapon—after July 7 if signatories of the deal don’t protect trade with the country.

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