Iran plans to increase uranium enrichment at its Fordow nuclear site by 20%
Vienna … News Time
Iran has told the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it plans to increase uranium enrichment at its Fordow nuclear site by 20%.According to the British news agency Reuters, under the agreement reached in 2015, Iran can increase uranium enrichment by 3.67%.Iran began increasing uranium enrichment in 2019 in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to scrap the nuclear deal and impose sanctions on Iran. The Iranian parliament passed a law last month following the death of General Qassem Soleimani, blaming Israel for the deaths.
Iran’s increase in uranium enrichment will make it difficult for newly elected US President Joe Biden to restore a deal canceled by the previous government. The IAEA said in a statement that Iran had informed the agency that it intended to enrich uranium at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant in Tehran by 20% after the law was passed by the Iranian parliament. The IAEA says Iran has not said when it will enrich uranium. The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is built inside a mountain with the apparent purpose of protecting the site from aerial bombardment, while the 2015 agreement does not allow uranium enrichment at the site. Iran is still enriching uranium to 4.5 percent, in violation of the uranium enrichment agreement. US intelligence and the IAEA believe Iran is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program that it stopped in 2003, but Iran has denied the allegations.
