The UN’s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog says it will meet next week to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme at the request of the US after Iran announced it had breached some terms of the deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the July 10 meeting in Vienna would address the announcement by Iranian President Hassan Rohani that the 2015 nuclear deal’s 300kg limit on enriched uranium stockpiling had been breached.
What the meeting would achieve was unclear, diplomats said.
The seven signatories to the deal have a separate forum they meet in called the Joint Commission and the deal details the action that could be taken.
Donald Trump pulled the US out of both the deal and the Joint Commission in 2018.
Rohani said Iran would boost its uranium enrichment beyond the 3.67-per-cent concentration limit set under the seven-nation deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“We will put this commitment aside by whatever amount we feel like, by whatever amount is our necessity, our need. We will take this above 3.67,” the president said.
Iran said the breach would be reversible “within hours” if Iran was given relief from Trump’s renewed sanctions, which have hammered the Iranian economy and sent the rial tumbling.
The IAEA is in charge of verifying the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities imposed by the 2015 agreement, which also lifted sanctions against the Islamic republic. The watchdog says it is up to the signatories to the deal to decide whether there has been a breach of its restrictions.
The IAEA reported that Iran breached the limit of 300kg for stockpiles of enriched uranium and said the “international community must hold Iran’s regime accountable”.
Iran’s mission in Vienna pointed to US “isolation” on the issue and said Washington was “the prime violator” of the 2015 deal, which was signed by Iran, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
Gibraltar crisis
Iran has threatened to seize a British oil tanker after the detention of its supertanker in Gibraltar.
Mohsen Rezaie, head of Iran’s Expediency Council, said its former coloniser was bullying Iran after Royal Marines seized Grace 1, which was allegedly bound for Syria.
He said Iran “has not hesitated to respond to bullies”.
“If the UK doesn’t return the Iranian tanker, the duty of responsible bodies is to seize a British oil tanker in a retaliatory measure,” the head of the influential council said.
Rob Macaire, the British ambassador in Tehran, was summoned to hear a formal protest after the Panama-flagged but Iranian-owned vessel was boarded on Thursday.
Grace 1 is now in Gibraltar and its 28 mainly Indian, Pakistani and Ukrainian crew have been interviewed “as witnesses, not criminals”, the authorities in the tiny territory said.
Gibraltar is suddenly in the spotlight. Picture credit: Flickr
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