Rouhani says Iran can enrich uranium to 90% purity if needed

By Paris Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Wednesday it could enrich uranium to 90% purity – at gun level – if its nuclear reactors were needed, but added that it was still seeking to restore the 2015 agreement that would limit its atomic activities. for the abolition of penalties.

“Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency can enrich uranium by 20% to 60% and if one day our reactor needs it, it can enrich uranium to 90% purity,” President Hassan Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting, the Mehr news agency reported.

The nuclear deal reaches 3.67% of the physical purity that uranium can refine in Tehran, below the 20% achieved before the agreement and below the 90% suitable for a nuclear weapon. Iran has long denied plans to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has violated the agreement in a number of ways after the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018, producing between 20% and 60% enriched uranium.

Rouhani will hand over the presidency to hard-working clergyman Ebrahim Raisi on August 5, implicitly criticizing Iran’s major decision “because its government does not allow it to revive the nuclear deal.”

“This government was deprived of the opportunity to reach an agreement. We are sorry to have missed the opportunity,” the state news agency IRNA told Rouhani.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top leader, not the president, has the final say in all state policies, such as nuclear policy.

Like Khamenei, Raisi has sided with indirect talks in Tehran and Washington with the aim of returning the arch-enemies who began in Vienna on April 9 to fully comply with the agreement. Washington dropped the deal three years ago, saying it was in favor of Iran, and suspended sanctions against Iran.

The Vienna talks were suspended on June 20 and no date has yet been set for the next round of negotiations. Iranian and Western officials said significant gaps remain to be addressed.