Iran exceeds enriched uranium stockpile limit

TEHRAN/UNITED NATIONS/DUBAI/VIENNA: Iran said Monday it had exceeded a limit on its enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal that has edged towards collapse as the US imposes a "maximum pressure" campaign.

Russia voiced regret but said it was a consequence of the US pressure, while Britain urged Iran "to avoid any further steps away" from the landmark deal. "Iran has crossed the 300-kilogramme limit based on its plan" announced in May, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told semi-official news agency ISNA.

The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and re-imposed biting sanctions on Iran´s crucial oil exports and financial transactions as well as other sectors. Tehran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal, on May 8 announced it would no longer respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles. It also threatened to go further and abandon more nuclear commitments unless the remaining partners -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- helped it to circumvent sanctions, especially to sell its oil.

In his comments published Monday, Zarif said Iran had set out its intentions "very clearly" in May. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday confirmed Iran had exceeded the limit that the deal had imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU). The IAEA "verified on July 1 that Iran´s total enriched uranium stockpile exceeded 300 kilogram", a spokesperson said.

A diplomat in Vienna, where the UN´s nuclear watchdog is based, said that Iran had exceeded the limit by two kilogram. World powers were quick to react.

Russia´s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Iran´s move was a cause for "regret" but also "a natural consequence of recent events" and a result of the "unprecedented pressure" imposed by the US. "One mustn´t dramatise the situation," Ryabkov said in comments reported by Russian news agencies.

Moscow is a close ally of Tehran and has previously called on European signatories of the nuclear agreement to respect the deal despite the US pullout. Britain´s Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter that London was "deeply worried" and urged Iran to refrain from taking any further steps outside the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. "UK remains committed to making deal work and using all diplomatic tools to deescalate regional tensions. I urge Iran to avoid any further steps away" the nuclear deal and "come back into compliance," he said.

On Friday, the European Union said after a crisis meeting aimed at salvaging the deal that a special payment mechanism set up to help Iran skirt the sanctions, known as INSTEX, was finally "operational" and that the first transactions were being processed. But "the Europeans´ efforts were not enough, therefore Iran will go ahead with its announced measures", Zarif said. INSTEX, which "is just the beginning" of their commitments, has not yet been fully implemented, he added.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged Iran to stick to its commitments under the nuclear deal and address differences through a dispute mechanism, his spokesman said. "It is essential that this issue, like other issues related to the implementation of the plan, be addressed through the mechanisms established in the JCPOA," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy commission said on Monday that Israel would be destroyed in half an hour if the United States attacks Iran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the European countries should “stand behind their commitments” and impose “automatic sanctions” on Iran. Israel, which considers the Iranian nuclear programme an existential threat, has backed Trump’s hard line, as have US allies among the rich Arab states of the Gulf, which consider Iran a foe and benefit from having its oil kept off markets.

“Just imagine what will happen if the material stockpiled by the Iranians becomes fissionable, at military enrichment grade, and then an actual bomb,” Joseph Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, told a security conference. “The Middle East, and then the entire world, will be a different place. Therefore, the world must not allow this to happen.”