Iran Has Breached 2015 Nuclear Deal’s Stockpile Limit, Says Country’s Foreign Minister; IAEA Yet To Verify Claim

Amid the escalating tensions between Iran and the United States (US), Tehran on Monday (1 July) said that it had breached the limit of its enriched uranium stockpile set in a deal it had signed with major powers in 2015, reports Indian Express.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif confirmed that Iran had exceeded the relevant limit of 300 kg of uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The move by the Iranian regime comes defying a warning by European co-signatories to stick to the deal despite US sanctions.

However, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said Iran’s steps to decrease its commitments to the nuclear deal were “reversible”.

According to the report, the development comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had last week verified that Iran had roughly 200 kg of low-enriched uranium, just below the deal's 202.8 kg limit. Enriching uranium to low levels is the first step in a process that could eventually allow Iran to amass enough highly-enriched uranium to build nuclear warheads.

Last week, Iran had said that European nations had offered it too little in the way of trade assistance to persuade it to back off from its plans to breach limit, in riposte to the US President Donald Trump's imposition of unilateral international sanctions against Iran.

As per the report, the IAEA said that its inspectors were verifying whether Iran had accumulated more enriched uranium than allowed.