Tehran to Continue Enriching Uranium
As the US intensifies its pressure campaign aimed at
curbing Tehran's ballistic missile program and its regional influence, the
Iranian clerical-led regime reaffirmed its plans to resume enriching uranium,
heavy (deuterium0-based) water and exporting oil.
Speaker Ali Larijani said Tehran would continue to
enrich uranium and produce heavy water, regardless of restrictions on shipping
abroad.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, for his part,
warned that the recent host of US economic sanctions, a part of Washington
strategy to counter Iranian malicious behavior, risks stoking internal
tensions. Reformists in Rouhani’s administration and Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei loyalists have been at odds on Iran’s response policy to pressure.
“Under the [nuclear accord] Iran can produce heavy
water and this is not in violation of the agreement. Therefore, we will carry
on with enrichment activity,” the semiofficial Iranian news agency, ISNA,
quoted Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani as saying on May 4.
“We will enrich Uranium whether you move to buy it
or not,” Larijani said.
On May 3, the US President Donald Trump's
administration slapped new restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities as it
looks to force Tehran to stop producing low-enriched uranium and expanding its
only nuclear power plant, intensifying a campaign aimed at halting Tehran's
ballistic missile program and curbing its regional power.
Despite increasing pressure on Iran, the United
States on May 3 extended five sanction waivers that will allow Russian, China,
and European countries to continue to work with Iran’s civilian nuclear program
at Bushehr. But it said it may punish any activity that expands the site.
At the same time, the State Department said it was
ending two waivers related to Iranian exports of enriched uranium in what it
called “the toughest sanctions ever on the Iranian regime.” All of the waivers
were due to expire on May 4.
The 45- to 90-day extensions were shorter than the
180 days granted previously but can be renewed.
It was the third punitive action taken against Iran
in as many weeks. Last week, it said it would grant no more sanctions waivers
for countries buying Iranian oil, accelerating its plan to push Iran’s oil
exports to zero. The Trump administration also took the unprecedented step of
designating Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist
organization.
“The Trump administration continues to hold the
Iranian regime accountable for activities that threaten the region's stability
and harm the Iranian people. This includes denying Iran any pathway to a
nuclear weapon," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
The Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear
accord a year ago and vowed "maximum pressure" aimed at curbing the
regional role of Iran.”
