{"id":91603,"date":"2021-01-02T08:14:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T13:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=91603"},"modified":"2021-01-02T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T13:14:09","slug":"auto-draft-406","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/01\/02\/auto-draft-406\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran nuclear crisis: Tehran to enrich uranium to 20%, UN says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"BBC \u2014 Iran intends to start enriching uranium to 20% purity, the UN’s atomic watchdog says – its most significant breach of an international nuclear deal so far.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This remains short of the 90% required to make a nuclear bomb. But under the 2015 agreement Iran was supposed to keep enrichment below 4%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Iran began breaching the deal after President Trump took the US out of it and re-imposed crippling sanctions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China all hope it can be revived.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What is Iran planning?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had informed it of its plans to enrich to a purity of up to 20% at its Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, a facility built deep inside a mountain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But the agency added: “Iran’s letter to the agency … did not say when this enrichment activity would take place.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Iran breached the 3.67% purity cap imposed by the nuclear deal in 2019 but the enrichment level had remained steady at up to 4.5% since then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However the increase to 20% was mandated in a law passed by Iran’s parliament last month in response to the assassination of the country’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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