Dialogue with the world is still possible despite Tehran’s recent tensions with world powers, says the president.
By World Israel News Staff
In a televised speech on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that the country is now enriching more uranium than it did before reaching the nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.
“We are enriching more uranium than before the deal…Pressure has increased on Iran but we continue to progress,” he said.
Rouhani also said that Iran is “trying daily to prevent military confrontation or war” and that dialogue with the world is still “possible” despite Tehran’s recent tensions with world powers.
“We have proven in practice that it is possible for us to interact with the world,” he said.
However, at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the president warned that European troops in the Middle East “could be in danger” if they continue to align themselves with the U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
“Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger. Security in this sensitive and important region will come at the expense of the entire world.”
This week, the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate issued its annual assessment for 2020, warning that Iran might have enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb by this spring. The report noted that it will take another two years to be weaponized sufficiently, and also theorized that Iran does not actually want to build a nuclear weapon, but rather to obtain better “cards” for negotiations with world powers.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany took steps to increase the pressure on Iran to abandon its continuing violation of the nuclear deal by triggering a clause in the agreement that paves the way for future sanctions on Iran if deemed necessary.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the three countries’ grievances, and if no resolution is adopted on the issue, the sanctions in all previous U.N. resolutions would be re-imposed, an action called “snapback sanctions.”