Iran appears determined to take a new step in revising nuclear commitments

Tabnak – As the two-month deadline set by Iran for the European countries to fulfill their JCPOA obligations is approaching, the Islamic Republic appears serious in continuing to revise its own nuclear commitments. Meanwhile, the United States is trying to once again securitize Iran’s nuclear program.

In this vein, a senior Iranian official says the country may increase the level of its enriched uranium to at least five percent as of July 7, as part of a decision to reduce its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In the second phase of scaling down its JCPOA commitments, Iran plans to increase the purity of its enriched uranium on Sunday, no longer sticking to the 3.67% limit it had agreed upon in the deal.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said in a Friday interview that the country will raise the 3.67% limit to any level it may need for its peaceful activities.

"For instance, in order for us to be able to make use of uranium at Bushehr reactor, a five-percent purity is needed, and it is a totally peaceful purpose that we generate power from the reactor jointly built by Iran and Russia," Velayati said.

The higher level of enriched uranium will also be useful for the country's other routine, industrial, and energy needs, which "are vital for us", he said. According to Velayati, Tehran is responding in kind to the violation of the JCPOA by the remaining signatories to the accord.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it will hold an emergency meeting on Iran next week. A spokesman for the UN's nuclear watchdog announced on Friday that the meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors will be held on July 10. The emergency meeting will be held at the request of US Ambassador to International Organizations Jackie Wolcott.

However, the request was later criticized by Iran's mission to the IAEA as "a bitter irony". In a statement released on its official Twitter account on Friday, Iran’s mission to the IAEA said the Islamic Republic’s recent measures taken in regard to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have nothing to do with the IAEA’s Board of Governors.

“The Permanent Mission of the I.R. Iran was informed of the Media Note of the US mission to the International Organizations in Vienna, about requesting a special meeting of the BoG (Board of Governors) of the IAEA to discuss the IAEA DG’s latest report on the implementation of the JCPOA,” the statement said.

In the same vein, the Russian permanent representative to IAEA said Washington withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 in an attempt to kill it, and now is pushing for an emergency meeting of the UN atomic watchdog’s Board of Governors to discuss Iran.

“A member of IAEA Board of Governors asked for an urgent session on Iran next week. OK, but what the Board is going to discuss? Iranian deviations from JCPOA? From the viewpoint of IAEA mandate, they don’t constitute violation or concern. BG is not a proper place to consider them,” Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted late on Friday.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) came into force in January 2016.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord. However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA on May 8, 2019. Iran has also set a 60-day deadline for the remaining JCPOA parties to fulfill their undertakings.