The ongoing diplomatic dispute between the Washington and Tehran hinges on a relatively small technical detail: Iran’s enrichment of uranium.

On Monday, Iran announced that it had breached a stockpile limit for low-enriched uranium that had been allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency subsequently confirmed that Iran’s stockpile had breached the 300-kilogram limit.

The Trump administration — which had already pulled out of the Iran deal in May 2018 — has suggested that the move showed Iran was never really serious about the 2015 deal. “There is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement Monday.

Iranian officials have responded to the remarks incredulously. “Seriously?” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote the next day.

The emotional responses belie the fact that the uranium stockpile limit is a relatively minor detail of the nuclear agreement — some experts would even argue that it is an insignificant one on a technical level. But its potential diplomatic impact should not be underestimated.

Uranium is a naturally occurring metal that can be used in both nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. However, to make it useful for either, it must be enriched. This means that the percentage of uranium-235, a naturally occurring fissile uranium isotope, must be increased.

In the uranium we find in the ground, the percentage of uranium-235 is less than 1 percent. However, it can be enriched by using centrifuge techniques to have a higher percentage of uranium-235.

Centrifuges can enrich uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. If uranium is enriched enough to be around 90 percent uranium-235, it can be used as fissile material in a nuclear weapon.

What does the Iran deal say about uranium enrichment?

The 2015 uranium deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, placed limits not only on the amount of enriched uranium that Iran could have, but also on how much the country could enrich its uranium.

The text of the deal states specifically that for 15 years, Iran “will keep its uranium stockpile under 300 kg of up to 3.67 percent enriched uranium hexafluoride” and that any excess quantities can be sold off on the international market. Three hundred kilograms amounts to about 660 pounds.

This limit is a far cry from the 22,046 pounds of higher-enriched uranium that Iran once possessed. But it also meant that Iran would be allowed to have low-enriched uranium that could be used for commercial nuclear plants.

What has Iran done and what has it said it would do?

After warnings, Iran announced Monday that it had exceeded the 300 kilogram limit of enriched uranium. It also said that this weekend, it may take an even bigger step, which would see it enriching uranium beyond the 3.67 percent level.

Does this mean Iran could build a nuclear weapon?

Not right now. Even if they wanted to enrich uranium to the levels that it would require to make a bomb, they would need a lot more uranium to start with.

“It takes some 1,200 kilograms [2645 pounds] of low enriched uranium, if further enriched, to produce enough material for just one nuclear device,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told The Washington Post. “So there’s still a long way from having that quantity and even further away from having the bomb.”

Is this a breach of the Iran deal?

Most analysts would say so. Yes, Iran cannot yet produce a weapon, but it could eventually. “This is a violation nonetheless, and it’s very worrisome,” said Kimball.

But Zarif has argued against this, saying that its partners in the Iran deal were not living up to their side of the agreement. On Twitter, he pointed to a section of the agreement that describes how Iran should respond when it feels like the other parties are not holding up their side of the agreement.

Since the United States pulled out of the deal and reimposed sanctions, Iran has complained that it cannot reap the economic benefits promised under the deal because European companies are afraid of running afoul of the Trump administration.

Germany, Britain and France, three of the remaining parties to the deal, are working on a barter system that would allow European businesses to trade with Iran. However, the complex system has not been used, and it is unlikely to meet all Iranian demands.

What does this mean for the future of the deal?

European leaders have suggested that they view Iran’s moves as ultimately reversible and part of a negotiating tactic. On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron released a statement that called on Iran to act “without delay” to put its enriched uranium stockpiles back below the agreed-upon limit.

The United States, meanwhile, has argued that Iran’s move shows that it should not have been allowed to enrich uranium at all. “It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level,” Grisham said.

Groups such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, long-running critics of the Iran deal, have said that Iran does not need to enrich uranium itself, and they should instead buy enriched uranium on the open market.

But some nonproliferation experts argue that the idea of zero enrichment would never work in practice. “Zero is a fantasy. It is a way of killing any possible deal by demanding the impossible,” Joe Cirincione, president of the Plough Shares Fund, tweeted on Monday. </s> TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile has passed the 300 kilogram limit under the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“I have been informed that Iran has passed 300-kilogram stockpile according to its plans and we had announced that earlier. Based on what had been announced, we have said very clearly what we do and consider it our rights within the framework of the JCPOA,” he told ISNA on the sidelines of a ceremony.

Under the JCPOA, Iran was only allowed to keep 300 kilograms of enriched uranium.

As a retaliation against the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA and reimposition of sanctions on Iran coupled with a failure by the European Union to compensate for the U.S. exit, Iran officially announced that Iran stops selling stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water for 60 days from May 8.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced on June 17 that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium will exceed 300 kilograms by June 27.

After June 27, Kamalvandi said, Iran will speed up its uranium enrichment activities beyond 3.67 percent if the other sides don’t take a practical step.

“After surpassing 300 kilograms, we will increase the speed of producing enriched uranium above 3.67 percent,” Kamalvandi stated. </s> Iran has breached the 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium allowed under the 2015 international nuclear accord, both Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Monday.

The IAEA "verified on July 1 that Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile exceeded 300 kilograms," a spokesperson said.

The amount is well below that needed to produce one nuclear weapon. But the breach shows that Iran intends to ratchet up its response to the United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year and its reimposition of harsh unilateral sanctions.

Read more: How Trump's sanctions are crippling Iran's economy

Iranian officials had said that the country would likely exceed the uranium limit this week if the remaining signatories to the nuclear deal — China, Germany, France, Britain and Russia — failed to find a way for Tehran to receive the economic benefits promised in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program.

Iran is allowed to enrich up to 300 kg of uranium to 3.67% under the terms of the JCPOA. It has not gone over the 3.67% threshold, but has threatened to do so by July 7. About 1500 kg of uranium enriched at around 90% is needed for one nuclear weapon.

Falling back under the 300 kg is easily reversible, and the remaining powers in the JCPOA would only become concerned if enrichment levels were ramped up to 20%, Francois Nicoullaud, a former French ambassador to Iran, told AFP.

"As long as Iran does not get close to a threshold of a ton of lightly enriched uranium, there is no pressing concern," Nicoullaud said. But if Iran "amassed, for example, a stock of 200 to 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to nearly 20% there would be cause for great concern."

The International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention non-profit, wrote in a January assessment that to strengthen its negotiating position Tehran "could creep past some of the JCPOA's boundaries both as a show of defiance and in hopes of pressuring the deal’s remaining parties to do more to save it."

The US exit from the deal and heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran in the Persian Gulf in recent months has had the European signatories to the JCPOA scrambling to save the accord.

After months of delay, European powers meeting with Iranian officials in Vienna last Friday announced the start of their so-called INSTEX scheme, a mechanism to facilitate EU-Iran trade in humanitarian goods not under US sanctions.

Trade between Europe and Iran has plummeted since the US imposed a raft of sanctions that have battered Iran's currency and sent its economy into recession. The Islamic Republic’s oil exports to the bloc are down to zero.

After the talks on Friday, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, said that Europe was not doing enough and for the INSTEX system to be useful "Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism."

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here. </s> Iran has breached the 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium allowed under the 2015 international nuclear accord, both Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Monday.

The IAEA "verified on July 1 that Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile exceeded 300 kilograms," a spokesperson said.

The amount is well below that needed to produce one nuclear weapon. But the breach shows that Iran intends to ratchet up its response to the United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year and its reimposition of harsh unilateral sanctions.

On Twitter, Zarif insisted Iran was not violating the deal, citing the "Dispute Resolution Mechanism" of the treaty, which it believes the so-called E3+2 — Germany, France and the UK plus Russia and China — have not brought to a successful conclusion.

Fierce criticism from Israel, US warns Tehran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been highly critical of Iran's nuclear program, urged European countries involved in the Iran nuclear deal to impose "automatic sanctions."

"You committed to act the moment Iran violates the nuclear agreement, you committed to activate the mechanism for automatic sanctions that was set in the [UN] Security Council," he said in a statement.

Israel, he said, would "soon unveil more proof that Iran was lying all the time" about the program.

In a White House statement, the US government reiterated its opposition to the JCPOA, which it withdrew from in May of last year. "It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level," it said, adding that "the United States and its allies will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons."

US President Donald Trump was asked by reporters for his reaction to the latest news from Tehran and he said: "They know what they're doing. They know what they're playing with and I think they're playing with fire."

Read more: How Trump's sanctions are crippling Iran's economy

Iranian officials had warned that the country would likely exceed the uranium limit this week if the remaining signatories to the nuclear deal — China, Germany, France, Britain and Russia — failed to find a way for Tehran to receive the economic benefits promised in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program.

Iran is allowed to enrich up to 300 kg of uranium to 3.67% under the terms of the JCPOA. It has not gone over the 3.67% threshold, but has threatened to do so by July 7. About 1,500 kg of uranium enriched at around 90% is needed for one nuclear weapon.

Falling back under the 300 kg is easily reversible, and the remaining powers in the JCPOA would only become concerned if enrichment levels were ramped up to 20%, Francois Nicoullaud, a former French ambassador to Iran, told AFP.

"As long as Iran does not get close to a threshold of a ton of lightly enriched uranium, there is no pressing concern," Nicoullaud said. But if Iran "amassed, for example, a stock of 200 to 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to nearly 20% there would be cause for great concern."

The International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention non-profit, wrote in a January assessment that to strengthen its negotiating position Tehran "could creep past some of the JCPOA's boundaries both as a show of defiance and in hopes of pressuring the deal's remaining parties to do more to save it."

Watch video 01:18 Share US sanctions crippling Iran's economy Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3KzUY US sanctions crippling Iran's economy

The US exit from the deal and heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran in the Persian Gulf in recent months has had the European signatories to the JCPOA scrambling to save the accord.

After months of delay, European powers meeting with Iranian officials in Vienna last Friday announced the start of their so-called INSTEX scheme, a mechanism to facilitate EU-Iran trade in humanitarian goods not under US sanctions.

Trade between Europe and Iran has plummeted since the US imposed a raft of sanctions that have battered Iran's currency and sent its economy into recession. The Islamic Republic's oil exports to the bloc are down to zero.

After the talks on Friday, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, said that Europe was not doing enough and for the INSTEX system to be useful "Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism."

Watch video 01:42 Share Iran nuclear deal: what next? Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3L9ZE Future of Iran nuclear deal in question

ng, cw, jsi/aw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here. </s> • Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Monday the country has surpassed a limit enriched uranium outlined in the 2015 nuclear deal.
• The 300 kg limit was outlined in the Obama-era nuclear agreement as a “sunset clause” that was meant to expire in 2030.
• Iran initially stuck to this clause even after President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal last year.
• But since then it threatened to breach the limit amid fresh economic and military tensions with the US.
• Uranium enriched to 3.67% can be used in power plants, but not to build nuclear weapons, however.

Iran has surpassed its limit on enriched uranium stockpile as outlined in the 2015 nuclear deal, breaking a promise it was meant to keep until 2030.

The country’s stockpile of uranium, enriched to 3.67%, surpassed 300 kilograms as of Monday, according to the BBC, Reuters, and Iran’s semi-state-run Fars news agency on Monday.

The IAEA is the authority in charge of monitoring and verifying Iran’s uranium stockpile. Business Insider has contacted the IAEA for comment.

The 300 kg limit was outlined as a “sunset clause” – an agreement that will ultimately expire – in the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The limitation on uranium enrichment was meant to disappear in 2030.

Read more: Here’s what’s in the landmark nuclear deal that Iran is starting to walk away from amid tensions with Trump

The news comes after the US deployed its most advanced fighter jets, F-22 Raptors, to the Middle East amid increasing military tensions.

Iran kept to its nuclear deal commitments even after President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement last year.

However, after the US accused Iran of attacking two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last month, Tehran changed its mind and said on June 17 that it would breach the nuclear stockpile limit in ten days.

European leaders unsuccessfully tried to persuade Iran to drop its plan to breach the limits on Friday.

Breaching the limit is a symbolic defiance of Trump, but will not really put Iran much closer to building a nuclear weapon, The Washington Post’s Loveday Morris noted.

The 3.67%-enriched uranium can be used in power plants but nuclear bombs require more than 90% enriched uranium, Morris said.

However, a stockpile of 1,050 kg could be further enriched into enough mateiral to build one nuclear bomb, the BBC reported, citing Arms Control Association.

The US has already crippled Iran economically with sanctions. Last week Trump signed new sanctions specifically targeting the country’s supreme leader. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran announced it will exceed the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, further escalating tensions in the Mideast.

The June 27 deadline comes ahead of another, July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with better terms for Iran to stay in the accord. If that second deadline passes without any action, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic likely will resume higher uranium enrichment.

Iran struck the nuclear deal in 2015 with the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. The deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, grew out of secret talks President Barack Obama's administration held with Iran after Rouhani, a relative moderate, took office.

Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium under the watch of U.N. inspectors in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. International businesses rushed to do deals with Iran, most notably the billion-dollar sales by Airbus and Boeing Co.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise of tearing up the deal because it didn't address Iran's ballistic missile program or its involvement in regional conflicts, withdrew America from the accord in May 2018. That halted promised international business deals and dealt a heavy blow to Iran's already anemic economy. In the time since, the Trump administration has said any country that imports Iranian crude will face U.S. sanctions.

Natanz, in Iran's central Isfahan province, hosts the country's main uranium enrichment facility, located underground. Iran has one operating nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which it opened with Russia's help in 2011. Under the accord, Iran reconfigured a heavy-water reactor so it couldn't produce plutonium and agreed to convert its Fordo enrichment site — dug deep into a mountainside — into a research center. Iran said on Monday it may stop the heavy-water reactor reconfiguration. Tehran also operates an over 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran.

Under terms of the nuclear deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. That's compared to the 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium it once had. Currently, the accord limits Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%, which can fuel a commercial nuclear power plant. Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to around 90%. However, once a country enriches uranium to around 20%, scientists say the time needed to reach 90% is halved. Iran previously has enriched to 20%. Iranian officials say they've quadrupled their production of low-enriched uranium and will break the 300-kilogram limit by June 27.

A centrifuge is a device that enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. Under the atomic accord, Iran has been limited to operating 5,060 older-model IR-1 centrifuges. The IR-1 is based on a 1970s Dutch design that Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan used to build Islamabad's nuclear weapons program and later sold to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Iran has the technical ability to build and operate advanced versions called the IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 at Natanz, but is barred from doing so under the nuclear deal. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program, told The Associated Press in September that the IR-2M and the IR-4 can enrich uranium five times faster than an IR-1, while the IR-6 can do it 10 times faster. Western experts have suggested these centrifuges produce three to five times more enriched uranium in a year than the IR-1s.

Iran also mothballed many already-built centrifuges as part of the deal.

FROM 'ATOMS FOR PEACE' TO STUXNET

Iran's nuclear program actually began with the help of the United States. Under its "Atoms for Peace" program, America supplied a test reactor that came online in Tehran in 1967 under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. That help ended once Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the shah.

In the 1990s, Iran expanded its program, including buying equipment from A.Q. Khan. Among its activities, Iran "may have received design information" for a bomb and researched explosive detonators, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

By August 2002, Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group revealed a covert nuclear site at Natanz. Iran to this day denies its nuclear program had a military dimension. Iran suspended enrichment in 2003 but resumed it three years later under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. World powers imposed crippling U.N. sanctions in response. The Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, soon disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges.

A string of bombings, blamed on Israel, targeted a number of scientists beginning in 2010 at the height of Western concerns over Iran's program. Israel never claimed responsibility for the attacks, though Israeli officials have boasted in the past about the reach of the country's intelligence services. Israel last year said it seized records from a "secret atomic archive" in Iran. </s> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran announced it will exceed the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, further escalating tensions in the Mideast.

The June 27 deadline comes ahead of another, July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with better terms for Iran to stay in the accord. If that second deadline passes without any action, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic likely will resume higher uranium enrichment.

Iran struck the nuclear deal in 2015 with the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. The deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, grew out of secret talks President Barack Obama's administration held with Iran after Rouhani, a relative moderate, took office.

Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium under the watch of U.N. inspectors in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. International businesses rushed to do deals with Iran, most notably the billion-dollar sales by Airbus and Boeing Co.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise of tearing up the deal because it didn't address Iran's ballistic missile program or its involvement in regional conflicts, withdrew America from the accord in May 2018. That halted promised international business deals and dealt a heavy blow to Iran's already anemic economy. In the time since, the Trump administration has said any country that imports Iranian crude will face U.S. sanctions.

Natanz, in Iran's central Isfahan province, hosts the country's main uranium enrichment facility, located underground. Iran has one operating nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which it opened with Russia's help in 2011. Under the accord, Iran reconfigured a heavy-water reactor so it couldn't produce plutonium and agreed to convert its Fordo enrichment site - dug deep into a mountainside - into a research center. Iran said on Monday it may stop the heavy-water reactor reconfiguration. Tehran also operates an over 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran.

Under terms of the nuclear deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. That's compared to the 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium it once had. Currently, the accord limits Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%, which can fuel a commercial nuclear power plant. Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to around 90%. However, once a country enriches uranium to around 20%, scientists say the time needed to reach 90% is halved. Iran previously has enriched to 20%. Iranian officials say they've quadrupled their production of low-enriched uranium and will break the 300-kilogram limit by June 27.

A centrifuge is a device that enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. Under the atomic accord, Iran has been limited to operating 5,060 older-model IR-1 centrifuges. The IR-1 is based on a 1970s Dutch design that Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan used to build Islamabad's nuclear weapons program and later sold to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Iran has the technical ability to build and operate advanced versions called the IR-2M, IR-4 and IR-6 at Natanz, but is barred from doing so under the nuclear deal. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program, told The Associated Press in September that the IR-2M and the IR-4 can enrich uranium five times faster than an IR-1, while the IR-6 can do it 10 times faster. Western experts have suggested these centrifuges produce three to five times more enriched uranium in a year than the IR-1s.

Iran also mothballed many already-built centrifuges as part of the deal.

FROM 'ATOMS FOR PEACE' TO STUXNET

Iran's nuclear program actually began with the help of the United States. Under its "Atoms for Peace" program, America supplied a test reactor that came online in Tehran in 1967 under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. That help ended once Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the shah.

In the 1990s, Iran expanded its program, including buying equipment from A.Q. Khan. Among its activities, Iran "may have received design information" for a bomb and researched explosive detonators, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

By August 2002, Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group revealed a covert nuclear site at Natanz. Iran to this day denies its nuclear program had a military dimension. Iran suspended enrichment in 2003 but resumed it three years later under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. World powers imposed crippling U.N. sanctions in response. The Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, soon disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges.

A string of bombings, blamed on Israel, targeted a number of scientists beginning in 2010 at the height of Western concerns over Iran's program. Israel never claimed responsibility for the attacks, though Israeli officials have boasted in the past about the reach of the country's intelligence services. Israel last year said it seized records from a "secret atomic archive" in Iran. </s> On Monday, Iran told the world that it had accumulated more low-enriched uranium than it was allowed to have under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal it had signed with the United States and five other countries. The deliberate violation of the provisions of that agreement, Iran has said, was in response to the reimposition of economic and other sanctions by the US after it unilaterally pulled out of the deal last year.

Iran’s latest move has put further strains on an already precarious agreement that seeks to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions. But Iran has kept the room open for negotiations, saying its move was “reversible”.

What is enriched uranium, and how much has Iran accumulated?

Uranium is the most common fuel used in nuclear reactors, and is required for nuclear electricity generation as well as to make nuclear weapons. On the other hand, naturally occurring uranium, which is predominantly composed of a stabler isotope, uranium-238, is not fissionable, meaning its nucleus cannot be split in a way that can sustain a chain reaction. To be used in nuclear reactors, natural uranium has to be ‘enriched’ with uranium-235 that can sustain fission chain reactions. Naturally occurring uranium has less than 1% of the uranium-235 isotope.

Even a small amount of enrichment, in the range of 3% to 5%, called “low enrichment”, is sufficient to run nuclear power reactors which allow only controlled fission reactions. For making nuclear weapons, however, “highly enriched” uranium — with more than 90% uranium-235 — is needed. More enrichment means more uranium-235 nuclei are available to be split, which in turn means greater heat and energy can be generated.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran is required to ensure that, for the next 15 years, its stockpile of uranium is not enriched beyond 3.67%. Further, this stockpile of 3.67% enriched uranium itself is not supposed to exceed 300 kg.

It is this 300-kg limit that Iran has now said it has exceeded. However, it has not specified how much more low-enriched uranium it has created. Iran has also said that its next step would be to enrich uranium beyond the 3.67% limit.

Under what circumstances was the deal with Iran signed?

The deal signed in July 2015 was an attempt by the US and other major world powers to ensure that Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons, which it has been suspected of trying to do for several years now. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is a sort of an international regulatory body on nuclear energy, had in 2003 reported the possibility of Iran secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons at one of its nuclear facilities. That had invited economic sanctions from the US and other countries.

After protracted negotiations that lasted over a decade, Iran and the US reached an agreement to restrict Tehran’s nuclear programme to only civilian uses in exchange for lifting of the sanctions. Apart from the US, the other parties to the deal are Russia, the UK, France, China and Germany, together called the P5+1.

The complex agreement specifies a large number of steps that Iran needs to take and requirements that it needs to meet to keep the economically crippling sanctions away. Most of the provisions of this agreement are supposed to run for the next 15 years, but some, like international monitoring of Iran’s uranium mines and mills, or of its nuclear power production facilities, are meant to be in force for the next 25 years.

In return, the US agreed to cease its sanctions against Iran’s oil and banking sector, allowing their re-entry into the international systems. It also allowed the sale of commercial passenger aircraft to Iran, which had been put on hold. The UN and European Union also eased their own sanctions on Iran.

So, why did the US withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions?

The agreement was negotiated when the Barack Obama administration was in power in the US. Current President Donald Trump has never shied away from expressing his discomfort with the deal, which he claims, was detrimental to the American interests. The Trump administration has advocated tougher provisions in the agreement, particularly with regard to the expiry dates on restrictions related to uranium enrichment. It does not want these restrictions to have any end-date.

After its offer to renegotiate the deal did not find acceptance from Iran, the US withdrew from the deal last year. It also slapped fresh sanctions on Iran. The five other countries, however, continued to be parties to the deal, thereby weakening the impact of US sanctions. However, these sanctions were still damaging enough for Iran to finally respond after a year.

What happens to the deal now?

Iran’s defiance of the provisions of the agreement is being seen as largely a bargaining ploy in its ongoing confrontation with the US, especially since it has explicitly said that it was open to reversing its decision if the sanctions against it were lifted. It is being seen as an attempt to put pressure on the other parties to convince the US of the need to keep the agreement, however fragile, in place. The Trump administration, however, has maintained a hardened stance towards Iran, and, in the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough, this could result in the unravelling of the deal. </s> TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will surpass the uranium-stockpile limit set by its nuclear deal in the next 10 days, an official said Monday, raising pressure on Europeans trying to save the accord a year after the U.S. withdrawal lit the fuse for the heightened tensions now between Tehran and Washington.

Hours later, the Pentagon announced it was sending about 1,000 additional American troops to the Middle East to bolster security in the region in the face of what U.S. officials said is a growing threat from Iran.

The announcement by Iran’s nuclear agency marked yet another deadline set by Tehran. President Hassan Rouhani already has warned Europe that a new deal needs to be in place by July 7 or the Islamic Republic would increase its enrichment of uranium.

Atomic energy spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi suggested that Iran’s enrichment could reach up to 20%, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.

It appears as if Iran has begun its own maximum pressure campaign on the world after facing one from President Donald Trump’s administration that deeply cut into its sale of crude oil abroad and sent its economy into freefall. Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the U.S. sanctions.

The development follows apparent attacks last week in the Strait of Hormuz on oil tankers, assaults that Washington has blamed on Iran. While Iran has denied being involved, it laid mines in the 1980s targeting oil tankers around the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes.

“If this condition continues, there will be no deal” anymore, Kamalvandi said. He accused the Europeans of “killing time” as the clock runs down.

Rouhani, greeting France’s new ambassador to Tehran on Monday, similarly warned that time was running out on the deal.

“The current situation is very critical and France and the other parties to the (deal) still have a very limited opportunity to play their historic role for saving the deal,” Rouhani said, according to his website.

The Iranian announcement appeared timed to strike just as European foreign ministers met in Luxembourg. Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top diplomat, declined to specifically address the Iranian announcement.

“At the moment, as of today, Iran is still technically compliant and we strongly hope, encourage and expect that Iran continues to comply,” Mogherini told journalists. She insisted she would await the next report on the issue from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Under terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. Kamalvandi said that given Iran’s recent decision to quadruple its production of low-enriched uranium, it would pass the 300-kilogram limit on Thursday, June 27.

The Vienna-based IAEA said last month that Iran remained within its stockpile limits and declined to comment on Iran’s announcement. Kamalvandi said Iran would continue to allow the U.N. to inspect its nuclear facilities for the time being.

He also raised the specter of increasing its enrichment levels, saying Iran needs 5% enriched uranium for its nuclear power plant in southern Iranian port of Bushehr and 20% enriched fuel for its Tehran research reactor.

The nuclear deal limits Iran to enriching uranium only to 3.67%, enough for power plants and other peaceful purposes.

But after America pulled out of the nuclear accord and escalated sanctions, Rouhani set a July 7 deadline for Europe to come up with better terms for the deal or Tehran would boost enrichment further. So far, a European mechanism called INSTEX to protect trade with Iran has yet to take off.

The danger, nuclear nonproliferation experts warn, is that at 20% enrichment, only a fraction of atoms need to be removed to enrich up to weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the 2015 deal grew out of Western concerns about the program.

Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Since Trump took office, the U.S. has steadily stripped away at the accord, and he pulled America out of the deal in May 2018.

However, Iran’s announcement that it was on the verge of surpassing the uranium-stockpile limit set by the nuclear agreement put the U.S. is the awkward position of having to push Iran to abide by the deal Trump has disparaged.

“It’s unfortunate that they have made this announcement today,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. “It doesn’t surprise anybody and this is why the president has often said that the JCPOA needs to be replaced with a better deal.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the international community should reinstate sanctions if Iran follows through on its threats, adding: “In any case, Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Tensions have risen in the region since last month. The U.S. rushed an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets to the Middle East in response to what it said were threats from Iran. On Monday, the Pentagon said it would send additional security forces and troops for increased surveillance and intelligence gathering in the region.

Meanwhile, a series of mysterious attacks have targeted oil tankers, and the U.S. blames Iranian-laid limpet mines. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also have launched a series of drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon on Monday released new photos intended to bolster its case that Iran was responsible for the attacks.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. suspects in the attacks, answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and operates outside of the traditional military’s control.

Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of the general staff of Iran’s armed forces, denied Tehran was involved in the tanker attacks, saying Monday the country only would respond in “an open, strong and severe way” if needed.

But he also reiterated Iran’s traditional stance on the Strait of Hormuz.

“If we decide to block the Strait of Hormuz, we will to do it in a way that even a drop of oil won’t pass the strait,” Bagheri added.

Kamalvandi spoke to Iranian journalists at the country’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor. Such reactors produce plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. Iran, under the nuclear deal, had reconfigured the facility to address Western concerns on that issue.

However, Kamalvandi said the country could rebuild the facility to make it produce plutonium. He made a point to give an interview to Iranian state television, standing next to the open pit where the reactor would be in the facility.

As the camera panned down to what would be the reactor’s core, Kamalvandi stressed that piping could be replaced and the reactor could be built to make plutonium. Hard-liners opposed to the nuclear deal had constantly accused the agency of filling the entire pit with concrete.

“They had previously photoshopped a picture of this place having been filled up with concrete,” Kamalvandi said.

He added: “The message that we tried to get across to Europeans today was that not much time is left for them.”
Iran announces that it has enriched more than 300 kilograms (660 lb) of uranium to 3.67%, contrary to previous agreement. This is still highly insufficient to produce one nuclear weapon.