The Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered speedy preparation for 190,000 SWU (Separative Work Unit) uranium enrichment, IRNA reported on Monday. Khamenei, who was attending a ceremony commemorating the 29th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s passing, said, “The words uttered by some European states indicate that they expect the Iranian nation to both agree to comply with the nuclear deal undertakings and live under sanction. I tell the European states that have undigested thoughts in their minds that this dream of yours will not come true.”
“The Iranian nation will not tolerate being under both sanctions and nuclear restrictions,” Khamenei stressed.
The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization plans to deliver a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna informing the agency of the decision regarding the increased production of uranium hexafluoride, the compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
“The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is duty-bound to prepare the ground for achieving 190 thousand of SWUs (Separate Working Units of uranium enrichment), but within the framework of the JCPOA for the time being,” the Supreme Leader said, implying that the Islamic Republic will resume nuclear fuel operations at the maximum level.
Khamenei blamed the West for targeting Iran’s defensive capabilities through means of psychological pressure on the Iranian people, and threatened: “We have the foremost missile defense power in the region, and that missile program guarantees our security! The enemy must know, if they strike us just once, we will strike back ten times fold!”
The 2015 nuclear deal Iran signed with the US, France, Germany, the UK, Russia, and China, strictly limited Iran’s uranium enrichment program, suspending its ability to produce a nuclear weapon – in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and unfreezing some $150 billion in Western banks. In May, President Trump withdrew from the deal, demanding stronger restrictions on Iran’s nuclear capability and the removal of the sunset clause.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said in a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin that “Iran calls for our destruction but it’s also seeking nuclear weapons to carry out its genocidal design.” He suggested that Israel has shared with Germany information about Iran’s nuclear program from the “secret Iranian archive,” adding: “It’s important to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the economic pressure [of sanctions] breaks this cash machine that feeds the Iranian regime.”
Chancellor Merkel said, “We stand for Israel’s right of security and we have said this to Iran with great clarity and firmness. We are united in the goal for Iran never to obtain a nuclear weapon, but we have difference of opinion about how to achieve that. We believe that the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the Iran deal) is offering a possibility to at least temporarily prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.”
Well, she was obviously wrong.