President of Iran Hassan Rouhani warned that the country will raise uranium enrichment levels to whatever it wants would by this weekend.
“Our enrichment rate is not going to be 3.67% anymore. It’s going to be as much as we want it to be,” Rouhani said Wednesday. Iran is obligated to keep enrichment levels below a 3.67% threshold as part of the 2015 nuclear deal — which European nations are struggling to enforce.
Rouhani’s statement comes days after President Trump announced a new round of sanctions on Iran, which has already breached the 300 kilogram limit for low-enriched uranium required under the deal. Rouhani has also recently expressed Iran’s desire to get to 20% enrichment levels that existed before the 2015 deal. Should levels ascend to their previous numbers, Iran would be poised to begin manufacturing nuclear weapons.
Since Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year, Rouhani has rebelled at the idea of following the uranium restrictions without the benefit of U.S. relief from sanctions. Trump tweeted early on Wednesday, “Iran was violating the 150 Billion Dollar (plus 1.8 Billion Dollar in CASH) Nuclear Deal with the United States, and others who paid NOTHING, long before I became President — and they have now breached their stockpile limit. Not good!”
Iran was violating the 150 Billion Dollar (plus 1.8 Billion Dollar in CASH) Nuclear Deal with the United States, and others who paid NOTHING, long before I became President – and they have now breached their stockpile limit. Not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
