According to the secret document, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program imposed under the accord will ease in slightly more than a decade, cutting the time Tehran would need to build a bomb to six months or less from present estimates of a year. These upgraded centrifuges are up to five times more efficient than Iran’s current equipment, and would allow the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium twice as fast as it is now.
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Mohammad Javad Zarif says a document, submitted by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency and outlining plans to expand Iran’s uranium enrichment program, is a “matter of pride”. “Iran is committed in the JCPOA to abide by this plan”, said State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner.
The Obama administration argues that, without the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would today be so large and unrestricted that its “breakout time” to enriching weapons-grade fissile material would already clock in at a month or less.
Ban’s report said ballistic missile launches by Iran in March were “not consistent with the constructive spirit” of the nuclear deal, but it is up to the United Nations Security Council to decide if they violated a resolution.
Samantha Power made the remarks at the UN Security Council briefing session on Iran nonproliferation and the implementation of Resolution 2231, IRNA reported. The United States, Russia and China have agreed to participate in the redesign and the construction of a modernized reactor. The IAEA says Tehran has essentially kept to its commitments since the agreement was implemented, a little more than six months after Iran and the six powers finalized it on July 14, 2015.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the report “politically motivated” and said it contained factual errors.
“Some of the provisions of the Secretary-General’s report have no relation to his mandate, nor to the terms of reference of (the U.N.) resolution or the (nuclear deal)”, Churkin said.
But although some of the constraints extend for 15 years, documents in the public domain are short on details of what happens with Iran’s most proliferation-prone nuclear activity – its uranium enrichment – beyond the first 10 years of the agreement.
The deal provides Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for its nuclear constraints.
Netanyahu expanded on this theme during a speech in the Knesset marking the 10th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War.
The Iranian diplomat added that “the consultations continue”.
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“Our red lines are clear”, he said. “And these are not only words, but actions repeated time and time again to back up our red lines”.
