Iran has gone further in breaching its nuclear deal with world powers, increasing its stock of enriched uranium and refining it to a higher purity than allowed, a U.N. atomic watchdog agency report showed on Friday.
Iran has said it will breach the 2015deal's limits on its nuclear activities one by one, in reaction to Washington'sdecision to abandon the accord last year and reimpose economic sanctions onTehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is policing the 2015 deal, said in July that Iran had exceeded both its 202.8-kg limit on enriched uranium stock and its 3.67% cap on the fissile purity to which Tehran is allowed to refine uranium.
Almost two months after it overshotthose limits, Iran has accumulated 241.6 kg of enriched uranium and isenriching up to 4.5%, the quarterly IAEA report to member states obtained byReuters showed.
Iran's enriched uranium stock is still far below the many tonnes it possessed before the deal. Its enrichment level is also well short of the 20% it reached before the deal and the roughly 90% that is considered weapons-grade.
Its breaches of the deal havetherefore not made much difference to the time it would need to obtain enoughfissile material for a nuclear bomb if it sought one. The deal – under whichIran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief– extended that time to roughly a year from a few months.
But the breaches have ratcheted uppressure the European parties to the deal – France, Britain and Germany – whosay they are determined to save the accord. France in particular has sought toencourage talks between Washington and Tehran, but Iran insists that first it mustget relief from U.S. sanctions.
Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear programme is for electricitygeneration and other peaceful purposes.
