Iran defies EU, declaring continued nuclear uranium enrichment
US State Department accuses Tehran of "nuclear extortion"
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALFILE PHOTO: Members of the media and officials tour the water nuclear reactor at Arak, Iran December 23, 2019. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS (photo credit: REUTERS)
BERLIN – The Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee declared that Tehran will move forward with its uranium enrichment process, triggering sharp criticism from the US State Department on Thursday.According to a report in the Iranian regime’s state-controlled MEHR news agency, the foreign policy committee for Iran’s parliament warned “that in case Europe does not provide Iran with a practical guarantee on implementation of JCPOA, the Islamic Republic will continue its uranium enrichment to its desired level and volume.”The JCPOA is an abbreviation for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal. The US withdrew from it in 2018 because the agreement, according to the Trump administration, failed to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. The other world powers – UK, France, China, Russia and Germany – have stuck with the JCPOA.Iran’s parliamentary committee “announced that despite European’ stance towards the nuclear deal and their emphasis on significance of its implementation besides Iran’s full commitment to the agreement, Europeans have been inactive and indifferent against US President Donald Trump’s remarks and behavior and the US withdrawal from the deal.”MEHR said the parliamentary committee report “added that neither Europe nor the US have paid any price for Trump’ decision of pulling out from the deal and Germany, France and UK have applied a double-standard policy towards the US withdrawal from the JCPOA.”A State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon that “Unfortunately, Iran’s continued expansion of uranium enrichment activities comes as no surprise. This is something that they threaten regularly in a transparent attempt at nuclear extortion.”MEHR wrote that “It confirmed that Iran is following up its restricted peaceful nuclear program and is trying to re-design and renovate Arak heavy water reactor to convert it into a modern facility.”The Arak heavy water facility can be used as a second pathway for building an atomic weapon. Arak’s plant allows for a plutonium-based, as opposed to uranium-based, way to develop nuclear weaponry.The Iranian parliament committee wrote that “Europe must guarantee Iran’s access to its exports and oil revenues.”The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that the prestigious Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security published a report outlining a newly revealed Iranian regime nuclear weapons plant that was discovered by Israel.The authors of the report indicate that “Iran should declare this site to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and allow its inspection, since the facility was designed and built to handle nuclear material subject to safeguards under Iran’s comprehensive safeguards agreement.”
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