Iran Accelerates Uranium Enrichment

• 11 Jun 2019

Why is it in News?

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran was now producing more enriched uranium than before, but it was not clear when it might reach stockpile limits set in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
• IAEA is the UN agency which is responsible for monitoring Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal signed between Iran, US and European countries like Russia, Germany, France and UK in 2015.

Relevance of the News: Iran’s nuclear escalation can increase the volatility in US-Iran standoff which is already at its high watermark.

US-Iran standoff:

• Recent weeks have seen U.S.-Iranian confrontation sharply increase. Last year the US abandoned the JCPOA agreement signed between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international financial sanctions.
• US wants to revise the nuclear deal, JCPOA, in order to make provisions stricter for Iran and to include more issues in the agreement like curbing Iran’s alleged role in wars in the region.
• US tightened its Iran sanctions from the start of May 2019, and ordered all countries and companies to halt all imports of Iranian oil or face seclusion from the global financial system.
• It has also begun discussing military confrontation, dispatching extra troops to the region to counter alleged Iranian threats.
• Iran has responded with a threat to increase its enrichment of uranium. Iran has asked Europeans, who still support the nuclear deal, to save the deal by finding ways to ensure Iran continues to receive the economic benefits it was promised in the JCPOA.
• Iran has demanded more cooperation and efforts by the European countries to shield it from US economic sanctions.
• France, Britain and Germany have set up a special-purpose vehicle called Instex, designed to allow payments to Iran that would legally bypass sanctions. It has yet to be launched.