Iran to resume uranium enrichment if nuclear talks with EU fail

BRUSSELS: Iran will restart its uranium enrichment if it cannot find a way to save the 2015 nuclear deal with the European Union after the United States pulled out last week, Tehran´s government spokesman said.

“If our interests are not preserved, we will pull out of the deal and will resume our enrichment to 20 percent, or any level that we desire to,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht as saying. Under the terms of the deal, Iran is allowed to enrich uranium to around 4 percent.

Iran says will not renegotiate nuclear deal: Iran will not renegotiate the nuclear deal or negotiate over its missile programme, the top advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

Ali Akbar Velayati, quoted by Fars news agency, also warned Israel that it would face a ‘stronger response’ if it repeats strikes on Syria. Last week, the United States withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers over Tehran´s nuclear programme, and Israel fired at targets in Syria in response to what it called an Iranian missile attack into Israeli territory.

US hits Iran central bank governor with sanctions: The United States slapped sanctions Tuesday on Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, accusing him of helping the country´s Revolutionary Guard Corps transfer millions of dollars to Lebanon´s Hezbollah.

In the second move in a week taking aim at the money networks of the Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC, the US Treasury also blacklisted a second central bank official, Iraq´s Al-Bilad Islamic Bank and its top two executives, and a liaison between IRGC and Hezbollah, which Washington has designated an international terrorist group.