TEHRAN – Iran said on Monday it had resumed uranium enrichment with 20% purity, a significant violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, which reduces the time it takes for Tehran to produce the amount of fuel needed for a nuclear weapon.
The level of enrichment is higher than at any time since the agreement was signed and crosses a red line previously established by European countries that remained committed to the agreement after the Trump administration withdrew from it in 2018.
The breach threatens to complicate the planned administration of incumbent President Joe Biden to relaunch the deal, which has limited the limits of Tehran’s nuclear program and heightened tensions in the Middle East, when the region is already on the sidelines.
Tehran has vowed to avenge the killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist in November and an elderly Iranian general who died in a US drone strike in January last year. The strike followed a year of hostilities in the region, which included explosions on oil tankers and an attack on major Saudi oil facilities, which the US blamed on Iran.
Iranian forces also seized a South Korean-flagged ship on Monday, according to a semi-official Iranian news agency, further escalating tensions with a US ally. The forces boarded the ship because it creates unspecified pollution in the Persian Gulf, the agency said. The ship’s owner, DM Shipping from Busan, South Korea, did not answer calls.