Iran will break its limit on stockpiled uranium set by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the next 10 days.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the country’s atomic agency, announced the upcoming ceiling on Monday, according to the Associated Press. Under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran cannot stockpile more than aaround 660 pounds of low-enriched uranium. Iran is set to pass that limit on Thursday, June 27.
In 2015, the Obama administration and other world powers agreed to lift economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on the country’s nuclear program. President Trump pulled the United States out of that agreement in May 2018 over Iran’s continued testing of ballistic missiles.
The U.S. renewed sanctions on Iran, effectively cutting the Middle East country off from global markets for its oil and collapsing Iran’s economy.
Though Iran is forbidden from possessing weapons-grade uranium under the terms of the 2015 deal, Iran could turn its low-enriched uranium into weapons grade uranium relatively easily.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said it is open to an “unlimited rise” in nuclear stockpiles that it said would be used to fuel the Tehran Research Reactor, a nuclear power station used to create medical isotopes used in cancer treatment.
Iran’s announcement comes as tensions between the U.S. and Tehran escalate over recent attacks on oil tankers sailing through the Straight of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane. The U.S. has blamed Iran for the attacks, citing video evidence purportedly showing Iranian forces removing a mine from one tanker. Iran has denied the accusations.
