Iran’s top political chamber on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill forcing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to end international nuclear inspections unless the US lifts key sanctions by February, giving the incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden just weeks to make a diplomatic breakthrough.
The legislation also says that Iran would immediately take measures to start producing 20 percent enriched uranium for peaceful purposes and increase its stockpile of the fissile material, potentially reducing the time Iran needs to make preparations to acquire a nuclear weapon.
The powerful Guardian Council, a political and legal body made up of senior clerics and Islamic scholars, ratified the bill and made it a legal requirement, while extending the deadline for sanctions relief to two months, instead of one, Iranian state TV reported.
Photo: AFP
That would appear to give the Iranian government — severely weakened since US President Donald Trump walked away from a 2015 nuclear deal — barely two weeks after Biden enters office to make major strides toward brokering the removal of US oil and banking sanctions.
The bill says that if the US does not remove the sanctions on Iran’s lending industry, exports of crude oil and petroleum products, and overseas foreign currency deposits within two months, parliament would suspend a voluntary agreement the nation has with UN inspectors that allows them intrusive access to nuclear sites.
The nuclear accord placed strict limits of 3.67 percent on the purity level of enriched uranium Iran is allowed to produce, but it abandoned the cap after Trump withdrew from the agreement and other partners were unable to offer promised relief from sanctions.
About 630kg of low-enriched uranium must be purified to 90 percent to yield the 15kg to 22kg of weapons-grade uranium needed to craft a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s store of low-enriched uranium increased to about 2,443kg from 2,105kg in the third quarter of this year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
It was unclear whether the Iranian government would be able to contest or appeal the Guardian Council’s decision or whether the so-called “Additional Protocol,” which Iran signed with the IAEA alongside the 2015 nuclear accord, could be legally suspended by lawmakers alone.
The Iranian parliament on Tuesday fast-tracked the bill’s passage after Iran accused Israel and the US of killing Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top nuclear scientist, last week.
Biden has said he wants to reinstate the nuclear deal, while Trump has been accelerating his efforts to destroy it before he leaves the White House on Jan. 20.
Rouhani rejected and criticized the legislation.
“Of course, the government does not agree with that ruling and sees it as harmful to diplomatic efforts,” Rouhani told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The IAEA on Tuesday played down the bill’s significance as a domestic matter that has had no bearing on cooperation between Iran and the agency.
Increased tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and incidents like the killing of Fakhrizadeh could complicate life for the incoming Biden administration, which has pledged to end Trump’s economic offensive against Tehran and re-engage diplomatically.
The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence on Wednesday said that it had “identified relevant individuals” involved in the assassination, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Israel has not commented on the claim it was behind the killing.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not