The U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, will buy 32 metric tons of heavy water worth $8.6 million, senior American officials said on Friday.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in NY on April 22.
Heavy water, a material used as a coolant in producing plutonium and used in medical research is expected to be resold within the U.S. after the purchase. And I want to emphasize we lifted our nuclear-related sanctions, as we committed to do, and there are now opportunities for foreign banks to do business with Iran. “They’re going to continue to spend as they have said they will, continue to support Hezbollah, Hamas in the goal of destroying Israel and the white, being the Jewish, off the face of the globe”, said Republican Representative Ryan Zinke. But the nuclear sanctions permitted non-U.S. banks to engage with business activity and companies in Iran, and it allows them to provide access to funds and financing, and it allows Iran, importantly, to have access to its own funds.
According to the JCPOA, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran is disallowed accumulation of heavy water for a time expansion of 15 years. The deal will be signed by USA and Iranian officials in Vienna Friday. “It is exclusively Iran’s responsibility to find a way to meet its JCPOA commitments, whether that is by selling, diluting or disposing of future stocks of heavy water to remain within the JCPOA limit”, a DoE spokesperson said in a statement. Kerry admitted this week that Iran has thus far been able to access only around $3 billion of the $55 billion the State Department estimates that it is owed.
The sale of heavy water has been criticized by those who opposed the deal with Iran, saying it essentially funds their nuclear program, keeping it alive. His remarks to this effect could, however, be regarded as self-contradictory insofar as he simultaneously emphasized the regime’s insistence that the United States expand upon implementation of the July 14 nuclear agreement by encouraging worldwide banks and European businesses to openly do business with the Islamic Republic.
Zarif said Iran continued to have differences with the U.S.
Their comments come after House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce of California introduced a bill that prohibits the administration from allowing the dollar to be used in trade transactions with Iran.
Recent reports say Iran is going to sell 32 tons of heavy water to the United States.
USA law still bans Iran from entering the American financial system or conducting business in dollars. “We thought it would be $55 billion, but guess what”, Kerry said, holding up three fingers. Now it’s supplying the U.S. Department of Energy.
Szubin focused on the merits and dangers of being tough with secondary sanctions that govern other countries’ transactions, and have become the latest flashpoint for concern as Iran seeks to cash in on the benefits of the nuclear deal.
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‘We shouldn’t be paying them for something they shouldn’t be producing in the first place, ‘ said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank.
