Iran won't halts 20 percent uranium enrichment until US bans lifted
Iran will stop 20-percent uranium enrichment only if the US sanctions are lifted, a senior official said.
"20-percent uranium enrichment is in line with Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA and will be stopped only if the US lifts all the sanctions," the official said on Monday evening.
"The Biden administration is losing time, and if it fails to lift the sanctions soon, Iran will take the next steps, which will be further reduction of its JCPOA commitments," the official added.
Politico reports that the US will float a proposal on the Iran nuclear deal which asks Tehran to halt work on advanced centrifuges and 20 percent uranium enrichment, in exchange for some sanctions relief.
In reaction to the report, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic to the United Nations reiterated that no proposal is needed for the US to rejoin the JCPOA.
In December, Iranian lawmakers passed a law ordering an immediate ramping up of the uranium enrichment program and calling for the expulsion of international nuclear inspectors if American sanctions were not lifted by early February.
Under the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the US and other world powers agreed to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for limits on the country's nuclear program. Former President US Donald Trump pulled his country out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed those sanctions.
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