Iran said on Saturday that it plans to enrich uranium by up to 20 percent at its underground nuclear facility in Fordo “as soon as possible”, pushing its program a technical step away from weapons levels as it increases pressure on the West over the tattered atomic agreement.
The move comes amid mounting tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the final days of President Donald Trump’s government, which unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Tehran nuclear deal in 2018.
This sparked a growing series of incidents culminating in a U.S. drone attack killing a major Iranian general in Baghdad a year ago, a birthday that comes on Sunday and which now has US officials concerned about possible Iran retaliation.
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Even Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the United States-educated Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, offered a military analogy to describe his agency’s readiness to take the next step.
“We are like soldiers and our fingers are on the trigger,” Salehi told Iranian state television. “The commander must command and we shoot. We are ready for this and we will produce (20% enriched uranium) as soon as possible ”.
The decision was taken after parliament passed a bill, later approved by a constitutional body, with the aim of increasing enrichment to pressure Europe to provide relief from sanctions. It also serves as pressure before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who said he was willing to enter the nuclear deal again.
The International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged that Iran informed its inspectors of the decision after the news leaked during Friday night.
“Iran informed the agency that, in order to comply with a legal act recently approved by the country’s parliament, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran intends to produce low-enriched uranium … up to 20 percent at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant.” the IAEA said in a statement.
The IAEA added that Iran did not say when it plans to increase enrichment, although the agency “has inspectors present in Iran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they have regular access to Fordo”.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based IAEA, wrote on Twitter on Friday that Tehran planned to resume enrichment by up to 20 percent after a Wall Street Journal reporter broke the news.
The IRNA later reported on Ulyanov’s comments, linking the decision to the parliament’s project that aims to restart further enrichment at Iran’s Fordo underground facility. It also offered no time limit for starting higher enrichment. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the collapse of the agreement, Iran has resumed enrichment in Fordo, near the holy Shi’ite city of Qom, about 55 miles southwest of Tehran.
Protected by the mountains, Fordo is surrounded by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and strong enough to make American officials suspect it had a military purpose when they publicly exposed the site in 2009.
The 2015 agreement saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment in exchange for sanctions. The agreement also provided for Fordo to become a research and development unit.
At the moment, Iran is enriching uranium by up to 4.5%, violating the agreement’s limit of 3.67%. Experts say Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium stored for at least two nuclear weapons if it chooses to pursue them. Iran has long maintained its peaceful nuclear program.
Iran separately started construction on a new site in Fordo, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press in December.
Iran’s announcement coincides with the anniversary of the U.S. drone hitting General Qassem Soleimani of the Revolutionary Guard in Baghdad last year. That attack later saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic missile attack, injuring dozens of US soldiers in Iraq. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that night, killing all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached, the United States sent B-52 bombers flying over the region and sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the Persian Gulf.
On Thursday, sailors discovered a lapa mine on a tanker in the Persian Gulf, near the Iran border, near the Iran border, while preparing to transfer fuel to another company-owned tanker. traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
No one has taken responsibility for mining, although it comes after a series of similar attacks in 2019 that the U.S. Navy attributed to Iran. Tehran denied being involved.
In November, an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier was killed in an attack that Tehran attributes to Israel.