On Friday, Iranian news agencies quoted the country’s nuclear chief saying that the country will continue to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity even after sanctions on it are lifted and a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is revived.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted stating, “Uranium enrichment … continues with a maximum ceiling of 60 percent, which led Westerners to rush to negotiations, and it will continue with the lifting of sanctions by both 20 percent and 5 percent.”
Iran can enrich uranium to 3.67 percent according to the 2015 deal, far below the roughly 90 percent that is weapons-grade or the 20 percent Iran reached before the deal.
Currently, Iran is enriching to various levels, the highest being around 60 percent.
Eslami did not elaborate or explain how 20 percent enrichment would be acceptable under the 2015 nuclear deal which Iran has been trying to revive through indirect talks with the US.
Earlier, Iranian officials told that Iran had agreed to suspend its 20 percent and 60 percent enrichment should an agreement be reached in the Vienna talks.
On the other hand, ending Iran’s economic isolation by lifting banking and oil trade sanctions was Tehran’s most important demand in talks with world powers in the Austrian capital, a senior Iranian cleric said earlier.
