Iran says it will boost uranium enrichment levels

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Wednesday that his country will increase its nuclear fuel enrichment after Sunday to “any amount that we want,” in defiance of the cap set by the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “Our level of enrichment will no longer be 3.67,” Rouhani told the IRIB news agency. “We will put this commitment aside by whatever amount we feel like, by whatever amount is our necessity, our need.” On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, an independent organization tasked with monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal, confirmed Iran’s announcement that it had reached uranium enrichment levels of 3.67 percent, the maximum allowed under the deal.

In response, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Iran was “playing with fire.” Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear agreement in May 2018, but China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom remained.

Rouhani said Wednesday that if the other parties to the deal do not offer Iran a way to combat new U.S. sanctions by Sunday, Tehran will rebuild its heavy water reactor, which can be used to produce plutonium, a key component of a nuclear bomb. In January 2016, Iran said it had removed the reactor’s core. Rouhani also emphasized that all actions could be reversed “within one hour. Why are you worried?”