Iran says it is starting to enrich 20% uranium amid U.S. tensions, Israel

Iran’s state television reported that Ali Rabiei has been named saying that President Hassan Rouhani has issued an order for a move at a Fordo facility.

Iran’s decision to start enrichment to 20% almost a decade ago led to an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, a tension that only eased with the 2015 atomic treaty. A resumption of enrichment could lead to 20% see the return of brinksmanship.

Israel, which has said under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Jewish state will not allow Iran to make nuclear weapons.

“Iran’s decision to continue to break its promises, increase the level of enrichment and advance industrial potential for underground uranium enrichment can be done in no way except for the purpose has to develop a nuclear weapons program, “he said in a statement.

The move comes after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. In the period since then, a series of events have been growing between the two countries.

Iran’s decision comes after its parliament passed a bill, subsequently agreed by a constitutional watchdog group, which aims to enrich walking to put pressure on Europe to take action. past sanctions relief. He is also under pressure ahead of the election of President Joe Biden, who has said he is willing to go back to the nuclear deal.

Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency last week that it intended to take the step.

Surrounded by the mountains, Fordo has anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is about the size of a football field, large enough to hold 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hard enough to make U.S. officials suspect it had a military purpose when they unveiled the site in public in 2009. .

In a 2015 treaty Iran agreed to end its wealth in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement also called for Fordo to be transformed into a research and development facility.

Under Iranian tough Vice President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran began to enrich at the 20% rate. Israel, which has its own undisclosed nuclear weapons program, feared that Tehran was building an atomic bomb.

After Fordo’s discovery, the U.S. worked on so-called “bunker buster” bombs designed to hit such facilities. As Israel once threatened to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites like Fordo, U.S. officials showed them video of a bunker-buster bomb destroying a mockery of Fordo in the American southwestern desert.

To date, Iran had enriched uranium up to 4.5%, going against the contract limit of 3.67%. Experts say that enough low – enrichment uranium in Iran is now accumulated for at least two nuclear weapons, if they choose to pursue them. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.