WarSclerotic

Iran said on Saturday that it is now enriching uranium to five percent and has a capacity for up to 60 percent, after a series of steps back from its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord with major powers.

Tehran also slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was his “biggest lie” that Iran seeks nuclear weapons.

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said at a press conference in Tehran that the organization has “the possibility to produce 5%, 20%, and 60%, and has this capacity,” adding that currently “the need is for 5%.”

Kamalvandi also said “Netanyahu’s biggest lie is that Iran is after nuclear weapons. Iran does not need nuclear weapons given the power balance in the region,” according to the Fars news agency.

“Of course, Iran enjoys nuclear capability and technology and there is no doubt about that. But these allegations by the Zionist regime are aimed at concealing its own ugly face,” he added. Israel has a stance of ambiguity — neither confirming nor denying the existence of nuclear weapon capabilities.

The 2015 deal set a 3.67% limit for uranium enrichment but Iran announced it would no longer respect it after Washington unilaterally abandoned the agreement last year and reimposed crippling sanctions.

“Based on our needs and what we have been ordered, we are currently producing five percent,” Kamalvandi said.

In this photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on November 6, 2019, a forklift carries a cylinder containing uranium hexafluoride gas for the purpose of injecting the gas into centrifuges in Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)

Uranium enrichment is the sensitive process that produces fuel for nuclear power plants but also, in highly extended form, the fissile core for a warhead.

The current five percent level exceeds the limit set by the accord but is less than the 20% Iran had previously operated and far less than the 90% level required for a warhead. However, once Iran reaches 20% purity it is a relatively short technical jump to reach 90% enrichment.

In its fourth step away from the agreement, Iran resumed enrichment at the Fordo plant south of Tehran on Thursday, with engineers feeding uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) into the plant’s mothballed enrichment centrifuges.

Iran was already enriching uranium at another plant in Natanz.

Tehran emphasizes the measures it has taken are swiftly reversible if the remaining parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — find a way to get around US sanctions.

On July 1, Iran said it had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to beyond a 300-kilogram (661 lb) maximum set by the deal, and a week later, it announced it had exceeded the enrichment cap.

The third move had it firing up advanced centrifuges on September 7 to enrich uranium faster and to higher levels.

Kamalvandi also said Saturday Iran is prepared, if necessary, to release footage of an incident with a UN nuclear inspector last week that led to it canceling her accreditation.

Kamalvandi said that a check at the entrance gate to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant “triggered the alarm multiple times, showing [the inspector] was either contaminated with certain materials or had them on her.”

Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran, April, 9, 2007. (Hasan Sarbakhshian/ AP/File)

He did not specify what the materials were or whether they had actually been found in her possession.

Kamalvandi said that Iran’s report on the incident to the International Atomic Energy Agency had convinced everyone but “the US, the Zionist regime and some Persian Gulf countries.”

“We’ve announced that, if needed, we will even present the footage of this,” he told a news conference, noting that Iran’s “bitter experiences” of nuclear sabotage had led to the strict system of checks.

Iran has accused its arch-foes Israel and the United States of mounting a long campaign of sabotage involving the assassination of Iranian engineers and cyber attacks on key facilities.

The IAEA said Thursday that the inspector was briefly prevented from leaving the country, adding that her treatment was “not acceptable.”

Iran’s ambassador to the agency, Kazem Gharib Abadi, denied the inspector was ever detained, saying she was allowed to leave even though an investigation was still ongoing.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of “an outrageous and unwarranted act of intimidation,” while the European Union voiced “deep concern” over the incident.

Under a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers that has been undermined by Washington’s withdrawal last year, its nuclear facilities are subject to continuous monitoring by the IAEA.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to “never let Iran develop nuclear weapons” after Tehran announced it was expanding its uranium enrichment efforts in a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.

‏”Iran expands its aggression everywhere. It seeks to envelop Israel. It seeks to threaten Israel. It seeks to destroy Israel,” Netanyahu said at an event in Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

“We fight back,” he added.

“And I also want to say, given Iran’s efforts to expand its nuclear weapons program, expand its enrichment of uranium for making atomic bombs, I repeat here once again: We will never let Iran develop nuclear weapons. This is not only for our security and our future; it’s for the future of the Middle East and the world.”

Netanyahu spoke just hours after Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran will begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges located at the heavily fortified Fordo facility in Iran’s Qom Province.

A satellite image from September 15, 2017, of the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran. (Google Earth)

The move marks Tehran’s latest step away from its nuclear deal with world powers since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord over a year ago.

The development is significant as the centrifuges previously spun empty, without gas injection, under the accord. It also increases pressure on European nations that remain in the accord, which has all but collapsed.

A statement carried in Iranian media later Tuesday said enrichment would go to five percent beginning Wednesday, when the centrifuges at Fordo would be injected with uranium gas.

Rouhani’s remarks, carried live on Iranian state television, came a day after Tehran’s nuclear program chief said the country had doubled the number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges in operation.

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the enrichment increase would be carried out in front of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog now monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal, according to Iran’s Mehr news.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, October 14, 2019. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

“Salehi said that it had been decided that there will not be [20%] uranium enrichment at Fordo for the time being,” the Iranian outlet reported.

Under the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran was limited to enriching uranium up to 3.67%, which is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade level of 90%. This summer, it began surpassing this level, in violation of the agreement, up to 4.5%, as a form of retaliation toward the United States, which has been steadily imposing sanctions on Iran since the White House pulled out of the nuclear deal last year.

There was no immediate reaction from the IAEA to Tuesday’s announcements.

The European Union on Monday called on Iran to return to the deal, while the White House sanctioned members of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s inner circle as part of its maximalist campaign against Tehran. Britain’s Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Iran’s reduced compliance with the nuclear deal “pose a risk to our national security.”

He added: “We want to find a way forward through constructive international dialogue but Iran needs to stand by the commitments it made and urgently return to full compliance.”

In this June 6, 2018 frame grab from the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, three versions of domestically-built centrifuges are shown in a live TV program from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, in Iran (IRIB via AP)

France, too, urged Iran to reverse course. “We urge Iran to go back on its decisions which contradict the accord,” the French foreign ministry said.

Rouhani stressed the steps taken so far, including going beyond the deal’s enrichment and stockpile limitations, could be reversed if Europe offers a way for it to avoid US sanctions choking off its crude oil sales abroad.

“We should be able to sell our oil,” Rouhani said. “We should be able to bring our money” into the country.

The centrifuges at Fordo are IR-1s, Iran’s first-generation centrifuges. The nuclear deal let those at Fordo to spin without uranium gas, while allowing up to 5,060 at its Natanz facility to enrich uranium.

A centrifuge enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. An IR-6 centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times faster than an IR-1, Iranian officials say.

In this January 13, 2015, file photo released by the Iranian President’s Office, President Hassan Rouhani visits the Bushehr nuclear power plant just outside of Bushehr, Iran (AP Photo/Iranian Presidency Office, Mohammad Berno)

Iranian scientists also are working on a prototype called the IR-9, which works 50 times faster than the IR-1, Salehi said Monday.

Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams (1 pound) of low-enriched uranium a day to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), Salehi said. Iran now holds over 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of low-enriched uranium, Salehi said. The deal had limited Iran to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

The collapse of the nuclear deal coincided with a tense summer of mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities that the US blamed on Iran. Tehran denied the allegation, though it did seize oil tankers and shoot down a US military surveillance drone.

Iran has regularly threatened to destroy Israel, and has developed ballistic missiles believed in the West to be intended to carry nuclear warheads in the future.

File: Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, head of the IDF’s Operations Directorate, in an undated photograph. (Israel Defense Forces)

In a leaked recording Tuesday, a senior Israel Defense Forces general was heard warning Israeli treasury officials that Iran could inflict heavy damage if it chooses to attack Israel, and asking for a budget increase for the army to counter the threat.

“There are Iranian Quds forces in the Golan Heights, and that’s not fear-mongering, they’re there,” head of IDF Operations Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva can be heard saying in the remarks carried by the Kan public broadcaster.

“All signs are indicating that…2020 has the potential to be an unfavorable year from a security perspective,” he said, noting Iran’s expansion of its missile capabilities in recent years and their recent use against Saudi oil facilities.

Iran began inserting uranium gas into centrifuges at the Fordo nuclear facility, state television announced Wednesday, marking its latest step away from the nuclear deal.

Iranian state media said uranium hexafluoride gas was injected into advanced centrifuges at the Fordo nuclear facility Wednesday, a day after Iran announced the move. It said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency were on hand.

As part of the 2015 accord with world powers limiting its nuclear program, Iran was barred from enriching uranium at Fordo, which was converted to a research center.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who announced the move Tuesday, confirmed on Twitter that enrichment activity had restarted at Fordo, converting the facility back into an active enrichment center.

A centrifuge enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas.

Since the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal last year and imposed tough sanctions, Iran has taken a number of steps to curb its adherence to the international agreement in a bid to receive economic relief from the European signatories to the pact.

“Iran has taken its fourth step to decrease its nuclear commitments to the deal in reaction to the increased US pressure and inactivity of European parties to the deal to save it,” Iran’s state TV said.

A satellite image from September 15, 2017, of the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran. (Google Earth)

Reacting to Iran’s announcement Tuesday it would resume work at Fordo, the US accused Tehran of “nuclear extortion,” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his vow to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons.

European Union spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic described the bloc as “concerned” by Iran’s decision. US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus decried the move, saying Iran originally built Fordo as a “fortified, underground bunker in which to conduct secret uranium enrichment work.”

“Iran has no credible reason to expand its uranium enrichment program, at the Fordo facility or elsewhere, other than a clear attempt at nuclear extortion that will only deepen its political and economic isolation,” Ortagus said.

Fordo sits some 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Qom, a Shiite holy city and the site of a former ammunition dump. Shielded by the mountains, the facility also is ringed by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is about the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to lead US officials to suspect it had a military purpose.

Iran state TV airs images of Russian-made S-300 long-range missiles arriving at the Fordo nuclear site in central Iran, August 28, 2016. (Screenshot/Press TV)

Iran acknowledged Fordo’s existence in 2009 amid a major pressure campaign by Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear program. The West feared Iran could use its program to build a nuclear weapon; Iran insists the program is for peaceful purposes.

The centrifuges at Fordo are first-generation IR-1s. The nuclear deal allows those at Fordo to spin without uranium gas, while allowing up to 5,060 IR-1s at the Natanz facility to enrich uranium.

Rouhani’s announcement came after Ali Akhbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Monday that Tehran had doubled the number of advanced IR-6 centrifuges operating in the country to 60.

An IR-6 centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times faster than an IR-1, Iranian officials say.

In this January 13, 2015, file photo released by the Iranian President’s Office, President Hassan Rouhani visits the Bushehr nuclear power plant just outside of Bushehr, Iran (AP Photo/Iranian Presidency Office, Mohammad Berno)

As of now, Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5%, in violation of the accord’s limit of 3.67%. Enriched uranium at the 3.67% level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. At the 4.5% level, it is enough to help power Iran’s Bushehr reactor, the country’s only nuclear power plant. Prior to the atomic deal, Iran only reached up to 20%.

Tehran has gone from producing some 450 grams (1 pound) of low-enriched uranium a day to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), Salehi said. Iran now holds over 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of low-enriched uranium, Salehi said. The deal had limited Iran to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

Experts described Iran’s announcement Tuesday as a major tear to the unraveling nuclear deal.

“They’re getting closer and closer to muscle. They aren’t cutting fat right now,” said Richard Nephew, a scholar at Columbia University who worked on the deal while at the State Department.

Rouhani on Tuesday did not say whether the centrifuges would produce enriched uranium. He stressed the steps taken so far, including going beyond the deal’s enrichment and stockpile limitations, could be reversed if Europe offers a way for it to avoid US sanctions choking off its crude oil sales abroad. However, a European trade mechanism has yet to take hold and a French-proposed $15 billion line of credit has not emerged.

“We should be able to sell our oil,” Rouhani said. “We should be able to bring our money” into the country.

An IDF general on Tuesday warned that Iran posed a growing threat to Israel through its forces throughout the region, as he asked Finance Ministry officials for a budget increase to counter this Iranian menace.

“There are Iranian Quds forces in the Golan Heights, and that’s not fear-mongering, they’re there,” the head of IDF Operations, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, could be heard saying in the remarks carried by the Kan public broadcaster on Tuesday night.

“All signs indicate that… 2020 has the potential to be an unfavorable year from a security perspective,” the army general said.

Haliva mentioned the attack on Saudi oil facilities in September as an example of what Iranian forces are capable of.

This image provided on Sept. 15, 2019, by the US government and DigitalGlobe and annotated by the source, shows damage to the infrastructure at at Saudi Aramco’s Kuirais oil field in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia (US government/Digital Globe via AP)

“It was a sophisticated attack that managed to evade both US and Saudi defenses… whoever says that it can’t happen to us isn’t a professional,” he said.

In the September 14 strike, a combination of cruise missiles and attack drones were used in a devastating attack on two of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco petroleum facilities, reportedly cutting the country’s oil output in half.

Haliva made his remarks on Tuesday to the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department.

The general also noted that Iran has expanded its operations against Israel, creating a new front in Iraq and further developing its proxy Hezbollah’s capabilities in Lebanon.

“You need to know how to manage this,” he said. “Our job is to allow [a normal] lifestyle as it is, just like this.”

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against Iranian and Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Iraq.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed these concerns later Tuesday.

‏”Iran expands its aggression everywhere. It seeks to envelop Israel. It seeks to threaten Israel. It seeks to destroy Israel,” Netanyahu said at an event in Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

“We fight back,” he added.

The military has been pushing for a budget increase to pay for an expansive and expensive new plan to rejuvenate the IDF, known as Momentum, or Tenufa in Hebrew.

The multi-year plan will see huge investments in developing the IDF’s arsenals, including increasing its collection of mid-sized drones, obtaining large numbers of precision-guided missiles from the United States and purchasing additional air defense batteries.

It’s projected to come with a significant price tag — a plan to provide front-line forces with improved weaponry is, alone, expected to cost hundreds of millions of shekels, according to the IDF — however a budget increase has yet to be approved by the Finance Ministry and cannot be approved until a government is formed.

In recent weeks, Israeli military officials have increasingly warned of a threat posed by Iran, which the IDF believes has been emboldened by a general withdrawal from the Middle East by the United States.

“In the northern and southern arenas the situation is tense and precarious and poised to deteriorate into a conflict despite the fact that our enemies are not interested in war. In light of this, the IDF has been in an accelerated process of preparation,” IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said last month.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.