DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran began enriching uranium on Monday to levels never seen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a South Korean flag tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, a double challenge for the West that further increased tensions in the Middle East.
Both decisions seemed destined to increase Tehran’s influence in recent days in the post of President Donald Trump, whose unilateral withdrawal from the 2018 atomic deal sparked a series of growing incidents.
The increase in enrichment at its Fordo underground facility puts Tehran a technical step away from 90% weapon grade levels, while also putting pressure on President-elect Joe Biden to negotiate quickly. Iran’s seizure of MT Hankuk Chemi comes as a South Korean diplomat should travel to the Islamic Republic to discuss the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in Seoul.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to recognize Tehran’s interest in leveraging the situation in a tweet about nuclear enrichment.
“Our measures are completely reversible with ALL’s TOTAL compliance,” he wrote.
In Fordo, Iranian nuclear scientists under the supervision of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency loaded centrifuges with more than 130 kg (285 pounds) of low enriched uranium to be centrifuged by up to 20%, said Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s permanent representative at the agency atomic force.
The IAEA later described the Fordo configuration as three sets of two interconnected cascades, composed of 1,044 IR-1 centrifuges – Iran’s first generation centrifuges. A cascade is a group of centrifuges working together to enrich uranium more quickly.
Iranian state television quoted government spokesman Ali Rabiei as saying that President Hassan Rouhani had given the order to begin production. It came after his parliament passed a bill, later approved by a constitutional body, with the aim of increasing enrichment to pressure Europe to provide sanctions relief.
The US State Department criticized Iran’s action as “a clear attempt to increase its nuclear extortion campaign”.
“The United States and the rest of the international community will evaluate Iran’s actions,” said the State Department. “We are confident that the IAEA will monitor and report on any new Iranian nuclear activities.”
Iran informed the IAEA of its plans to increase enrichment to 20% last week.
Iran’s decision to start enriching at 20% purity a decade ago almost triggered an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, tensions that only subsided with the 2015 atomic agreement, which saw Iran limit its enrichment in exchange for lifting sanctions. economic.
A resumption of 20% enrichment may bring a return to temerity. A November attack that Tehran attributes to Israel has already killed an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier.
From Israel, which has its own undeclared nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Iran’s enrichment decision, saying that “it cannot be explained in any other way than the continued achievement of its goal of developing a program. military nuclear. “
“Israel will not allow Iran to manufacture a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful. The US State Department says that last year, “it continued to assess that Iran is not currently involved in key activities associated with the design and development of a nuclear weapon”. This reflects previous reports from US intelligence agencies and the IAEA, although experts warn that Iran currently has enough low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons if it chooses to pursue them.
Meanwhile, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized MT Hankuk Chemi, with photos released later showing his ships alongside the oil tanker. Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed the tanker leaving the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Monday.
The ship was traveling from a petrochemical plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, to Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates. The ship carries a shipment of chemicals including methanol, according to data analysis company Refinitiv.
Iran claimed that it seized the ship because it was polluting the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the gulf where 20% of the world’s oil passes.
The United States Department of State called for the immediate release of the oil tanker, accusing Iran of threatening “rights and freedoms of navigation” in the Persian Gulf to “extort the international community to ease the pressure of sanctions”.
Calls to the ship’s registered owner, DM Shipping Co. Ltd. of Busan, South Korea, were not answered after Monday business hours. South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an anonymous company official denying Iran’s claim that the ship polluted the water.
The captain “asked why we have to go and be examined and got no answer,” said official Yonhap.
In recent months, Iran has tried to increase pressure on South Korea to unlock some $ 7 billion in frozen assets from oil sales obtained before the Trump administration tightened sanctions on the country’s oil exports. The head of Iran’s central bank recently announced that the country was trying to use funds tied to a South Korean bank to buy coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to participating countries.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded the ship’s release, saying in a statement that its crew was safe. The crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the Guard. South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said it is also sending its anti-piracy unit close to the Strait of Hormuz, which is a 4,400-ton class destroyer with about 300 soldiers.
Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokesman for the 5th US Navy Fleet in Bahrain, said officials are monitoring the situation. Last year, Iran similarly seized a British-flagged oil tanker and held it for months after one of its tankers was detained off Gibraltar.
The incidents coincide with the anniversary of the drone attack in the United States, killing General Guard Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at American bases in Iraq, injuring dozens of American soldiers. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that night, killing all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached and fears of possible Iranian retaliation grew, the United States dispatched B-52 bombers over the region and ordered a nuclear-powered submarine to crash into the Persian Gulf.
US Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said on Sunday that he had changed his mind about sending the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier from the Middle East home and would instead keep the ship in service. He cited Iranian threats against Trump and other U.S. government officials as the reason for the redistribution, without going into details.
Last week, sailors discovered a limpet mine attached to 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 near the Strait of Hormuz, which the U.S. Navy attributed to Iran. Tehran has denied involvement.
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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Robert Burns and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.