Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that there is “no limit” to Iran’s level of nuclear enrichment, further flouting the country’s 2015 nuclear deal.
Rouhani’s Thursday comments follow an announcement in early January that Iran would no longer abide by limits on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium, the key component in nuclear weapons.
“We have no limits on the nuclear file, and we are increasing enrichment every day,” he added.
Despite the comments, the country has still not enriched uranium to its pre-nuclear deal levels. The nuclear deal capped the allowed concentration of uranium-235 at 3.67%, which Iran surpassed over the summer, increasing the concentration to over 4.5%. That number is still far below the 90% threshold needed to produce nuclear weapons.
Trump warned Iran at the time that increasing the concentration of fissile material would come back to bite the country like “nobody has been bitten before.”
Rouhani, 71, additionally said on Thursday that the volume of enrichment has increased as tensions rise.
“We are enriching more uranium before the deal was reached … Pressure has increased on Iran, but we continue to progress,” he said.
Since last year’s 4.5% announcement, tension between the United States and Iran has continued to escalate.
Iran recently fired more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that house American forces. The Iranian attack was a direct retaliation for the U.S. operation that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike last week.
After launching the missiles at Al Asad base and one in Irbil, Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner and killed all 176 on board. Rouhani has admitted that the downing was because of “human error” but blamed tension with the U.S. as the “root cause” for the disaster.
Victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals. Once it was revealed that Iran was responsible, people took to the streets to demonstrate against the regime and call or the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that his opposition political group supports the protesters, adding that, “The world must wake up and hold these mass murderers to account.”
Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said that about 30 people involved in the demonstrations have been detained for “taking part in illegal gatherings.”
President Trump said he stands with the demonstrators and said in a tweet in Farsi that the protesters’ “courage is inspiring.”
