• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Iran Exceeds Enriched Uranium Limit as Europe Fails to Bring Sanctions Relief

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/01/19
in Featured, World
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Photo: Maxim Malinovsky, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Iran said Monday it had exceeded a limit on its enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal that has edged towards collapse after the United States withdrew from the agreement and imposed a “maximum pressure” campaign.

“Iran has crossed the 300-kilogramme limit based on its plan” announced in May, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told semi-official news agency ISNA.

Though the stockpile exceeds the limits placed under the deal, it does not approach the levels necessary to weaponize uranium.

Iran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent from July 7. But that also remains far short of the 90 percent purity required to build a weapon.

U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and reimposed severe sanctions on Iran’s crucial oil exports and financial transactions as well as other sectors.

The 2015 deal saw Iran commit to never acquire an atomic bomb, to accept drastic limits on its nuclear program and submit to IAEA inspections in exchange for a partial lifting of crippling international sanctions.

But Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2018 – and subsequent sanctions – have deprived Iran of the economic benefits it was promised and plunged it into recession.

Tehran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal, on May 8 announced it would no longer respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles.

It also threatened to go further and abandon more nuclear commitments unless the remaining partners – Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia – helped it to circumvent sanctions, especially to sell its oil.

In his comments published Monday, Zarif said Iran had set out its intentions “very clearly” in May.

After the U.S. withdrawal, European leaders had tried to salvage the agreement by attempting to set up a mechanism to help Iran skirt the sanctions.

Trump violated the nuclear accord over a year ago. This is a minor – and entirely predictable – response by Iran. https://t.co/rEOagzNSwc

— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) July 1, 2019

The E.U. said Friday after a crisis meeting aimed at salvaging the deal that the INSTEX payment mechanism was finally “operational” and that the first transactions were being processed.

But “the Europeans’ efforts were not enough, therefore Iran will go ahead with its announced measures,” Zarif said.

But the foreign minister said the European efforts nonetheless highlighted a growing rift between Washington and its European allies.

“Although it does not meet the demands of the Islamic republic, (or) Europeans’ obligations … it has a strategic value (in showing) that the closest allies of the United States are distancing themselves from America in their economic relations,” Zarif said.

INSTEX was designed to only support transactions in the pharmaceutical, medical and agricultural-food sectors.

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday confirmed Iran had exceeded the limit that the deal had imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU).

The IAEA “verified on July 1 that Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile exceeded 300 kilograms,” a spokesperson said.

The latest tensions coincide with a buildup of U.S. forces in the Gulf and a series of incidents including Iran’s shooting down of a U.S. drone it claimed had entered its airspace. Following that incident, Trump said he called off a planned bombardment of Iran just ten minutes before it was set to commence.


More on the Subject 

How Iran Plans to Weather the Storm of US Sanctions

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Russian passports
World

EU Won’t Recognize Russian Passports From Occupied Ukraine

by Staff Writer
November 10, 2022
Mario Draghi
Business

EU Leaders Clash Over How to Tackle Energy Prices

by Staff Writer
October 20, 2022
Olaf Scholz
Business

Germany Defends Massive Energy Plan Against EU Critics

by Staff Writer
October 4, 2022
Members of the Muslim Uyghurs minority demonstrate
World

EU to Ban Products Made Using Forced Labor, Risking China Anger

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
Eurozone
Business

Eurozone Stocks Sink as Inflation Accelerates to Record High

by Staff Writer
May 31, 2022
EU flags
World

EU Countries Expel Dozens of Russian Diplomats

by Staff Writer
March 29, 2022
Next Post
Refugees on a boat

Arrest of Migrant Rescue Ship Captain in Italy Fuels Tensions With Germany

Chief Marcelino Apurina, of the Aldeia Novo Paraiso gestures as he speaks in the Western Amazon region of Brazil, near Labrea on September 21, 2017

Torching Earth's Lungs: Bolsonaro's Environmental Policies Set Scene for Catastrophe

Recommended

Ursula von der Leyen

EU Ministers Weigh Response to Latest Trump Tariff Threat

July 14, 2025
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese

UN Says US Sanctions on Expert Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Must Be Reversed

July 11, 2025
Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post