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Iran says it will break uranium stockpile limit in 10 days
By NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL
20 minutes ago
17 June 2019

View attachment 8190
FILE - This Jan. 15, 2011 file photo, shows a part of Arak heavy water nuclear facilities, near the central city of Arak, 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran. Iran will break the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the spokesman for the country's atomic agency said Monday June 17, 2019, while also warning that Iran has the need for uranium enriched up to 20%, just a step away from weapons-grade levels. (Mehdi Marizad/Fars News Agency via AP, File)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will break the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the spokesman for the country’s atomic agency said Monday while also warning that Iran has the need for uranium enriched up to 20%, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.

The announcement indicated Iran’s determination to break from the landmark 2015 accord, which has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the deal last year and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, sending its economy into freefall.

The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, made the announcement during a press conference with local journalists at Iran’s Arak heavy water facility that was carried live on Iranian state television.

The development comes in the wake of suspected attacks on oil tankers last week in the region, attacks that Washington has blamed on Iran, and also as tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States, a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America for the nuclear deal.
Kamalvandi acknowledged that the country already quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium and said Tehran would increase uranium enrichment levels “based on the country’s needs.”

That increase could be to any level, from 3.67% which is the current limit set by the nuclear deal.

Iran’s needs 5% enrichment for its nuclear power plant in southern Iranian port of Bushehr and it also needs 20% enrichment for a Tehran research reactor, the spokesman said.

When uranium is mined, it typically has about 140 atoms of this unwanted isotope for every atom of U-235. Refining it to a purity of 3.67%, the level now allowed by the nuclear deal, means removing 114 unwanted atoms of U-238 for every atom of U-235.

Boosting its purity to 20% means removing 22 more unwanted isotopes per atom of U-235, while going from there to 90% purity means removing just four more per atom of U-235, he noted. Ninety percent is considered weapons-grade material.

That means going from 20% to 90% is a relatively quicker process, something that worries nuclear nonproliferation experts.

The U.S. alleges Iran used limpet mines to target the tankers last Thursday, pointing to black-and-white footage it captured that American officials describe as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel removing an unexploded mine from the Japanese-operated tanker Kokuka Courageous, one of the two ships that were targeted.

The Japanese tanker’s crewmembers appeared to contradict the assertion that mines were used. They described “flying objects” as having targeted the vessel.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated the U.S. official position. He claimed that intelligence officials have “lots of data, lots of evidence” tying Iran to the attacks, though he did not provide any specifics. He called the alleged shipping attacks “an international challenge, important to the entire globe.”

In Brussels on Monday, European Union foreign ministers said they were still looking for more information on who might be behind the incident involving the tankers. Germany and others insisted they need a clearer picture before wading into a diplomatic conflict which could have serious implications in the Middle East.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that U.S. and British intelligence needs to be compared with other information from allies. “We have to be very careful,” he said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said it was not a time to jump to action without proper information. “The maximum restraint and wisdom should be applied,” she said ahead of the monthly foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.


Iran says it will break uranium stockpile limit in 10 days
 

yavar

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Iran Atomic Energy Organization AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi press conference Irak reactor: in next 10 days, we will pass 300 kilograms limit of stockpile uranium within JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)
 

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Iran Atomic Energy Organization AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi press conference Irak reactor: in next 10 days, we will pass 300 kilograms limit of stockpile uranium within JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)
I don’t see what “important details” were released today, the uranium stockpile was announced a while ago that they would not follow it any more. All they said is maybe they go to 5% or 20% enrichment after the 60 day deadline finishes
 

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Iran Atomic Energy Organization AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi press conference Irak reactor: in next 10 days, we will pass 300 kilograms limit of stockpile uranium within JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)
 

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Iran talking to Russia and China in case EU nuclear deal efforts fail: TASS
June 19, 2019

View attachment 8224
FILE PHOTO - Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council of Iran, attends the swearing-in ceremony for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani for a further term, at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, August 5, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran is in talks with Russia and China on a possible settlement mechanism in case discussions with EU over a nuclear deal fail, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security council, Ali Shamkhani, said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Tehran said in May it would reduce compliance with the nuclear pact it agreed with China, Russia and other world powers in 2015, in protest at the United States’ decision to unilaterally pull out of the agreement and reimpose sanctions last year.

Iran added that it would start enriching uranium at a higher level unless other European signatories to the deal protected its economy from the U.S. sanctions within 60 days.

The new U.S. sanctions have forced countries around the world to boycott Iranian oil or face sanctions of their own.
Shamkhani said that Iran could solve the issue of exporting oil, according to TASS.

Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva

 

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Rouhani: Breaking nuclear deal the least Iran can do to counter U.S.
19 June 2019
By Nicholas Sakelaris

View attachment 8291
An inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency examines the site of a uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, Iran. Tehran said this week it plans to resume uranium enrichment this month. UPI Photo/File | License Photo

June 19 (UPI) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhanisaid Wednesday plans to violate the 2015 nuclear deal by adding to Tehran's uranium stockpile is the least possible step it can take.

Iran said this week it plans to begin enriching more uranium for the stockpile on June 27. Rouhani told his cabinet Wednesday that plan is Iran's "minimum measure" to answer the United States' withdrawal from the pact and new sanctions from Washington aimed at hindering Tehran's economy.

The nuclear deal was brokered in 2015 between Iran and a coalition led by the United States under former President Barack Obama. Last year, President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the accord and has since taken increasingly aggressive actions to punish Iran.

Rouhani criticized European leaders Wednesday, saying they haven't fully committed to a deal without the United States and have refused to engage in normal trade, for fear of the U.S. sanctions.

"The other party [to the deal], however, has not only refused to keep its commitments... but also brought [its] main spirit into question," he said, noting that spirit is "restoration of decent economic relationship between Iran and the world."

Rouhani also said the U.S. sanctions are hurting third-world nations that used to trade with Iran.

"This is not sanctioning. This is a crime against humanity and economic terrorism."

Tensions between Iran and the United States have risen in recent weeks. U.S. officials have said Iran is behind several attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman since last month. Rouhani deflected the blame Wednesday.

"Our close ties to Asia, Japan and China prompted some to attack two oil tankers on the very day that the Japanese premier (Shinzo Abe) was our guest," Rouhani said.

Maj. Gen Hossein Salami, who leads Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Tehran's ballistic missile technology changes the "balance of power" in the region. He reiterated claims that Iran has a missile capable of destroying a U.S. aircraft carrier to "end the story of American aircraft carriers in the area."

"If we got this technology, we could target the enemies," he said. "We tested it at sea to hit the target precisely.

Salami said diplomacy is not known without power, and "we are safe when we are powerful."

 

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Iran Third of Khordad and Tabas air defence system ایران سیستم پدافند هوایی سوم خرداد و طبس

 

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Official information about the domestic Iranian SAM (Third of Khordad) that downed the US RQ-4 drone over Iranian airspace:

8373


8374


8375
 

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Trump: “I come from New York City, we have a lot of Iranians. And they’re great people. I have friends that are Iranians. They’re very smart, they’re very ambitious and tremendous high-quality people. I don’t want to kill 150 Iranians. I don’t want to kill 150 of anything or anybody, unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

 

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Trump: We "appreciate" that Iran didn't down manned P-8 Poseidon jet that was flying alongside the downed RQ-4.

President Trump said Saturday Iran was “very wise” not to shoot down a manned plane when it decided to down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone.

There was a plane with 38 people yesterday, did you see that? I think that's a big story. They had it in their sights and they didn't shoot it down. I think they were very wise not to do that. And we appreciate that they didn't do that. I think that was a very wise decision,” Trump told reporters Saturday.

 

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Iran dismisses British call for release of aid worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe
June 24, 2019

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FILE PHOTO - Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. Ratcliffe Family Handout via REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) - Jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will serve out her five-year prison sentence, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday, dismissing a call for her release by a British minister visiting Tehran.

“Mrs Zaghari is an Iranian. She has been convicted on security charges and is spending her sentence in prison,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, was quoted as saying by the state media.

“Iran does not recognize dual nationality,” he said.

Foreign Office minister Andrew Murrison pressed Iran for the “urgent and unconditional release” of Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Sunday, during a visit to Iran to discuss the situation in the Middle East, his ministerial area of responsibility.

Fears of a direct military confrontation between Washington and Tehran have risen sharply since Iran shot down a U.S. drone last week and U.S. President Donald Trump called off a retaliatory strike while bombers were in the air.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

She was sentenced after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and Reuters News.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard started a hunger strike outside the Iranian Embassy in London last week to draw attention to his wife’s plight.

“We do not approve such measures.. They are against international conventions,” Mousavi said in the statement. “If someone has a request, we advise them follow it through legal channels and let the Iranian embassy do its work.”

Ratcliffe did not immediately respond to attempts by Reuters to contact him for a response to Mousavi’s comments.

Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Jon Boyle

 

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Trump: countries should protect "their own ships" in Strait of Hormuz


:)

Also has dropped '12 demands' of Pompeo. The past few days he was saying the US only wanted Iran to not develop nuclear weapons, now he says no nukes + no support for "terrorism". I think it could be worth it to have preliminary negotiation behind the scenes for what kind of framework Trump is looking for... If not now then definitely in 2020 if he wins.
 
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Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has dismissed as false reports claiming that the country’s oil export decreased in June due to reinforcement of sanctions imposed by the United States.

“This report is an absolute lie,” Zanganeh told Fars news agency on Monday while reacting to unverified data published online allegedly showing that Iran’s sale of oil had decreased significantly in June to few hundred thousand barrels per day (bpd).

The Reuters news agency cited industry sources and tanker data as saying on Monday that Iran’s crude exports in June dropped to 300,000 bpd, down from an estimated amount of 400,000-500,000 bpd in May.

Zanganeh declined to give any detail about the actual figure of Iran’s current oil export, saying that would not be to Iran’s benefit.

“I don’t give any figure. That would be to our harm,” said the minister, without elaborating.

 
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