Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has defended his country’s enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels, claiming it was a response to European states not living up to their end of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“In the beginning, we were not seeking 60% levels of enrichment. They trampled upon their commitments,” Raisi told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week. “What the Islamic Republic of Iran did was in response to a breaking of commitment of the signatories to the agreement.” Iran announced that it was enriching uranium to 60% in 2021, following an attack on its above-ground nuclear facility in Natanz, which Tehran blamed on Israel.
signatories have since 2021 attempted to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiation table. The parties have held on-and-off talks but have so far failed to return to an agreement. While it was only the US that pulled out of the deal, that withdrawal affected European trade with Iran, said Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at International Crisis Group think tank. “As a result… around 80% of Europe’s trade with Iran evaporated almost overnight,” Vaez told CNN.
signatories have also failed to stick to their parts of the deal, continuing instead to impose sanctions against Tehran. The Iranian president told CNN that should Europeans at “any time return to a fulfillment of their commitments, rest assured, and have no doubt that the Islamic Republic as it has done in the past, will fully adhere to [its] commitments.
commitments and ongoing nuclear escalation.” Iran’s foreign ministry called the decision “illegal,” and that it “amounts to a tension-building measure, which is taken in bad faith,” Iranian media reported. Iran this month barred several UN inspectors from conducting verification activities on its nuclear program, the IAEA said, adding that Tehran has “effectively removed about one third of the core group of the Agency’s most experienced inspectors designated for Iran.
have lost a lot of credibility in the eyes of the Iranians, Vaez of Crisis Group said, adding that the Iranians see them as having “overpromised and underdelivered.” This view, he added, is taken up by hardline politicians like Raisi, as well as more moderate ones. “Now, you see that the Iranians and the Americans have reached an understanding that has toned down Iran’s nuclear program, in which Europe played no role,” Vaez said.
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