Iran’s president threatens to continue violating nuclear deal

Such work would advance the Iranians toward the capability to construct a nuclear bomb.

By World Israel News Staff 

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani warned on Monday that Tehran will continue to scale back its commitments to the 2015 nuclear accord until the European Union fulfills promises that it made under the terms of the deal.

Rouhani, speaking on state television, said Iran would start working on more advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges, reports Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily newspaper. Such work would advance the Iranians toward the capability to construct a nuclear bomb.

He spoke of IR-9 centrifuges, reports the Associated Press. “It’s unclear what those centrifuges can do, though Iran has a host of advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium more rapidly than those allowed under the accord,” said the news agency.

The president called on European parties to the pact to salvage the deal by shielding Iran’s economy from U.S. penalties.

Iran has gradually withdrawn from its commitments to the pact in the aftermath of the U.S. pullout in May 2018, under President Donald Trump, and the imposition of American sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The nuclear accord was reached in July 2015 between Iran and six world powers, including the U.S. Obama administration, as well as Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany.

Federica Mogherini played a central role in her capacity as the European Union foreign policy chief.

On regional tensions, Rouhani stressed diplomacy as the way to solve differences, according to TRT World, a Turkish news outlet.

“Ending the war in Yemen will pave the ground for de-escalation in the region,” Rouhani said, adding that it could also “eventually lead to de-escalation between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” reported the Turkish outlet.

In September, Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels launched drone attacks on the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oil field in the kingdom, sparking huge fires and halting about half of the supplies from the world’s largest exporter of oil.

On Thursday, speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the “the focus of the current aggression in the Middle East is the Iranian regime.”