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Iran’s president warned Europe Wednesday that his country would “take the next step” in increasing its uranium enrichment this coming Sunday, and enrich to “any amount that we want.”

The comments by President Hassan Rouhani at a cabinet meeting in Tehran further increase pressure on European partners to salvage the unraveling 2015 nuclear deal following the US withdrawal from it last year.

If signatories of the nuclear accord do not fulfill their commitments, Rouhani said, levels of enrichment will go beyond the 3.67 percent limit agreed under the deal.

“In any amount that we want, any amount that is required, we will take over 3.67,” he said.

“Our advice to Europe and the United States is to go back to logic and to the negotiating table,” Rouhani added. “Go back to understanding, to respecting the law and resolutions of the UN Security Council. Under those conditions, all of us can abide by the nuclear deal.”

To reach weapons-grade levels, uranium must be enriched to over 90%. But due to the nature of the enrichment process, once Iran reaches 20% purity it is a relatively short jump to reach the 90% enrichment needed for fissile material used in nuclear bombs.

US President Donald Trump pulled America from the nuclear deal last year and restored crippling economic sanctions. Iran this week breached a low-enriched uranium stockpile limitation set by the deal and said by Sunday it would increase its enrichment of uranium closer to weapons-grade levels if Europe does not offer it a new deal.

Illustrative. Centrifuges enriching uranium. (Public Domain/US Department of Energy/Wikimedia Commons)

Iran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal, had announced on May 8 that it would no longer respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles.

The diplomatic chiefs of the EU, France, Germany and Britain said Tuesday they were “extremely concerned” and called on Iran to change course.

“We urge Iran to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal,” said the joint statement signed by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and the three countries’ foreign ministers — France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian, Germany’s Heiko Maas and Britain’s Jeremy Hunt.

“We have been consistent and clear that our commitment to the nuclear deal depends on full compliance by Iran,” they said. “We regret this decision by Iran, which calls into question an essential instrument of nuclear nonproliferation.”

They added that the group was “urgently considering next steps under the terms” of the deal, which saw Iran commit to never acquiring an atomic bomb, accept drastic limits on its nuclear program and submit to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in exchange for a partial lifting of international sanctions.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks at the Asia Society in New York, Wednesday, April 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The European Union had said Friday after a crisis meeting aimed at salvaging the deal that a special payment mechanism set up to help Iran skirt the renewed US sanctions, known as INSTEX, was finally “operational” and that the first transactions were being processed.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday that “the Europeans’ efforts were not enough, therefore Iran will go ahead with its announced measures.” INSTEX, which “is just the beginning” of their commitments, has not yet been fully implemented, he said.

On Monday US National Security Adviser John Bolton declared the only reason Iran has for increasing its production of enriched uranium is to position itself for a quick jump to producing nuclear weapons.

Bolton was in Israel last week to attend a tripartite meeting of the national security advisers of the US, Israel and Russia, during which Iran’s impact on the region was a key topic of discussion.

At the meeting, Bolton slammed Iran as the “source of belligerence and aggression” in the Middle East but said there is an “open door” for negotiations with the US.

Israel’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Iran was sliding toward a war in which it would suffer heavy losses, and threatened that Israel could take unilateral action against the Islamic Republic if needed to keep it from getting nuclear weapons.

The comments by Israel Katz came a day after Iran said it had breached an agreed-upon limit on its stocks of low-enriched uranium, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “significant step” toward building a nuclear weapon.

“Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, even if it has to act alone on that,” Katz told Army Radio.

Iran’s “mistakes in the gray area will lead it to the red zone — a war in which it will be hit hard,” he added.

On Monday, Iran acknowledged that the country had exceeded a 300 kilogram stockpile limit for enriched uranium laid out in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal that saw sanctions lifted from Iran in exchange for it dismantling the weapons-capable aspects of its nuclear program. The US pulled out of the deal last year.

Tehran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent starting July 7.

Iran’s uranium conversion facility near Isfahan, which reprocesses uranium ore concentrate into uranium hexafluoride gas, which is then taken to Natanz and fed into the centrifuges for enrichment, March 30, 2005. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Breaking the stockpile limit by itself doesn’t radically change the one year that experts say Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, if it chooses to pursue one. But by coupling an increasing stockpile with higher enrichment, it begins to close that one-year window and hamper any diplomatic efforts at saving the accord.

Under terms of the nuclear deal, Iran agreed to have less than 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium enriched to a maximum of 3.67%. Previously, Iran had enriched as high as 20%, which is a short technical step away from reaching weapons-grade levels. It also held up to 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of the higher-enriched uranium.

While Iran has insisted it can reverse course and the deal’s remaining signatories called on it to stick to the deal Monday, Netanyahu urged Europe to scrap the deal and reimpose punishing sanctions on Iran.

Katz echoed that sentiment, calling the Iranian move a “wake-up call” to Europe.

“Feeding the Iranian tiger will not help; only an aggressive policy and sanctions and support for the US policy will quickly show that it is a paper tiger,” Katz said.

Katz made the comments a day after returning from a visit to the Gulf city of Abu Dhabi, where his office said he held consultations on Iran with a United Arab Emirates official.

Katz, who was in the UAE for a UN climate conference, said he also spoke to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres while there about efforts to return Israeli captives and the remains of two IDF soldiers held in the Gaza Strip since 2014.

Israel and several Gulf countries have stepped up open contacts in recent years against the background of shared consternation over Iran’s nuclear program and other malign activities.

Iran’s uranium enrichment announcement Monday came as tensions remain high between Iran and the US. In recent weeks, the wider Persian Gulf has seen Iran shoot down a US military surveillance drone, mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launching bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

At the White House Monday, Trump told reporters Iran was “playing with fire,” and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the international community to require Iran to suspend all enrichment, even at levels allowed under the nuclear deal.

“The Iranian regime, armed with nuclear weapons, would pose an even greater danger to the region and to the world,” Pompeo said in a statement.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted, “There is no reason for Iran to increase its enrichment unless it’s part of an effort to reduce the breakout time to produce nuclear weapons.”

WASHINGTON — The United States will “never allow” Iran to develop nuclear weapons, the White House warned Monday, after Tehran said it had exceeded a limit on enriched uranium reserves set under a 2015 nuclear deal.

“Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime will continue until its leaders alter their course of action,” said a statement from White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. “The regime must end its nuclear ambitions and its malign behavior.”

“The United States and its allies will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” it said, calling it “a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level.”

“There is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms,” it added.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to the statement by highlighting the claim that Tehran violated the deal before it existed and sardonically tweeting the word “Seriously?”

View image on Twitter

Javad Zarif

✔@JZarif

Seriously?

4,133

3:46 AM – Jul 2, 2019

Iran said Monday that it has surpassed a cap on its enriched uranium reserves under the nuclear deal that has edged towards collapse under Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

The State Department also vowed to step up economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran until its leaders return to the negotiating table to hammer out a new nuclear deal.

“The United States is committed to negotiating a new and comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime to resolve its threats to international peace and security. As long as Iran continues to reject diplomacy and expand its nuclear program, the economic pressure and diplomatic isolation will intensify,” it said.

Criticizing the 2015 accord for permitting some uranium enrichment, the State Department said “the right standard” would ban Iran from any enrichment.

It also accused the regime of using the accord to blackmail the international community. “The world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism continues to use its nuclear program to extort the international community and threaten regional security,” it said.

Israel earlier urged European states to sanction Iran, while Russia voiced regret, but said the move was a consequence of US pressure.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif attends the geopolitical discussion event ‘Iran Regional and Global Prespective for 2019,’ in New Delhi on January 8, 2019. (Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP)

Britain called on Tehran “to avoid any further steps away” from the landmark deal, and the UN said Iran must stick to its commitments under the accord.

“Iran has crossed the 300-kilogram limit based on its plan” announced in May, Zarif told semi-official news agency ISNA.

But he also said the move could be reversed.

Zarif also insisted Iran had done nothing wrong. “We have NOT violated the #JCPOA,” he tweeted using an acronym for the nuclear deal.

He referred to a paragraph in the pact outlining mechanisms to resolve disputes if one side believes the other is not meeting its obligations.

“We triggered & exhausted para 36 after US withdrawal,” tweeted Zarif.

He said Iran would “reverse” its decision “as soon as E3 abide by their obligations” — referring to the European partners of the deal Britain, France and Germany.

Illustrative: An unidentified International Atomic Energy Agency inspector cuts the connections between the twin cascades for 20 percent uranium enrichment at the Natanz facility, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Monday, January 20, 2014. (AP/IRNA, Kazem Ghane)

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran had exceeded the limit that the deal had imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU).

The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and reimposed biting sanctions on Iran’s crucial oil exports and financial transactions as well as other sectors.

Iran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent from July 7. That remains far short of the 90% purity required to build a weapon.

The latest tensions coincide with a buildup of US forces in the Gulf and a series of incidents including Iran’s shooting down of a US drone it claimed had entered its airspace.

A senior Iranian lawmaker on Monday threatened that Israel would be destroyed in “half an hour” if the United States attacks the Islamic Republic.

“If the US attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan,” said Mojtaba Zolnour, chairman of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, in comments carried by the Mehr news agency.

Iran acknowledged Monday it had broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the US unilaterally withdrew from the accord.

The announcement came as tensions remain high between Iran and the US. In recent weeks, the wider Persian Gulf has seen Iran shoot down a US military surveillance drone, mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launching bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as making the uranium announcement. IRNA reported that Zarif, answering a reporter’s question whether Iran had broken the limit, said: “Yes.”

“If Europeans do what they have to do, our measures are reversible,” Zarif said, according to IRNA.

Zarif did not say how much low-enriched uranium Iran had on hand, IRNA said.

Also Monday, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency said Iran was behind a string of recent attacks on targets across the Persian Gulf.

Speaking at an annual security conference in Israel on Monday, Yossi Cohen said, “I can tell you, with certainty, from the best sources of Israeli and Western intelligence, that Iran is behind the attacks.”

Mossad head Yossi Cohen at a cyber conference at Tel Aviv University, June 24, 2019. (Flash90)

Cohen mentioned recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf, oil fields in Saudi Arabia and in Baghdad. He said the attacks “were approved by the Iranian leadership, and were carried out, at least mostly, by the Revolutionary Guard and their surrogates.”

Israel has long seen Iran as its greatest threat. Iranian officials regularly threaten to destroy the Jewish state.

A private Israeli intelligence firm on Monday identified one of the sites in Syria targeted in an alleged Israeli airstrike earlier in the day as a hangar likely storing advanced weaponry or other military equipment.

In the predawn hours of Monday morning, Syria accused Israel of conducting a series of air- and sea-based attacks on military facilities throughout the country. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group, at least 15 people were killed during the strike, including six civilians under unclear circumstances.

The Observatory said at least a dozen Iranian-linked targets were hit in the strikes, two near Homs and 10 of them near Damascus, including a base where Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces are headquartered and a weapons research center.

Israel did not comment on the attack — one of the most extensive series of strikes in several months, coming less than a week after a trilateral summit with Russia and the United States concerning Tehran’s activities and military presence in the region.

Explosions seen near Damascus on July 1 2019. Syria says Israeli jets hit targets in Damascus and Homs (Screencapture/Twitter)

ImageSat International, a satellite imagery analysis firm, released a photograph of one of the targets: a hangar located at the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Jamraya, outside Damascus.

A photograph of the same site from June 4 showed a 12-meter (39-foot) by 30-meter (98-foot) hangar in Jamraya, which lies approximately 10 kilometers (seven miles) northwest of Damascus. The image from Monday showed the structure completely destroyed.

According to ImageSat, the building was “probably used for storage of advanced weapon systems or another sensitive element.”

The Hezbollah terror group and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp have been said to maintain a presence at the Jamraya facility.

The US has repeatedly imposed sanctions on the SSRC for its alleged role in chemical weapons production. France has also imposed sanctions on the agency.

Israeli airstrikes reportedly hit the facility in May 2013 and again in February 2018.

The monitor said that at some sites, large blasts were caused by exploding ammunition depots and noted many ambulances had headed to the sites.

There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on reported strikes.

The Israeli military has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, on targets linked to Iran, which is backing President Bashar Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war.

Yossi Cohen, the head of the Mossad intelligence service, said Monday that Israel “can’t agree to Syria becoming a staging ground for Iranian forces or forces operated by it against us. We can’t agree to Syria becoming a logistics base for transferring weapons to Hezbollah and Lebanon.”

Cohen did not refer specifically to the Monday strikes, but acknowledged that Israel conducted military activities in Syria.

“Israel has taken action in the past four years, overtly and covertly, about which only a small amount has been published, in order to block the entrenchment and the production lines of precision-guided munitions,” he said.

The reported strikes came just hours after an Israeli satellite imagery analysis company said Syria’s entire S-300 air defense system appeared to be operational, indicating a greater threat to Israel’s ability to conduct airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in the country.

Satellite photos released by ImageSat International appear to show all four missile launchers of the S-300 air defense system in the raised position in the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf on June 30, 2019. (ImageSat International)

Until now, only three of the country’s four surface-to-air missile launchers had been seen fully set up at the Masyaf base in northwestern Syria.

Israel has threatened to destroy the S-300 system if it is used against its fighter jets, regardless of the potential blowback from Russia.

Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.