Iran said Saturday it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility “as soon as possible,” pushing its program a technical step away from weapon quality levels as it increases pressure on the West over the ruptured nuclear agreement.
The move comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration, which unilaterally pulled America out of Tehran’s 2018 nuclear deal.
That set in motion an escalating series of incidents covered by a US drone strike that killed an Iranian top general in Baghdad a year ago, an anniversary next Sunday with US officials now concerned about possible retaliation from Iran.
Iran’s decision to begin enriching to 20% a decade ago nearly brought an Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities, tensions that only eased with the 2015 atomic deal. A 20% resumption of enrichment could help that fringe ability return.
Even Ali Akbar Salehi, the US-trained head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, offered a military analogy to describe his agency’s willingness to take the next step.
“We are like soldiers and our fingers are on the triggers,” Salehi told Iranian state television. “The commander has to take command and we fire. We are ready and will produce (20% enriched uranium) as soon as possible.”
Iran’s decision comes after parliament passed a bill, later approved by a constitutional watchdog, aimed at walking enrichment to pressure Europe to ease sanctions. It also serves as pressure leading up to the inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he is willing to rejoin the nuclear deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged that Iran had informed its inspectors of the decision by letter after the news leaked on Friday night.
Iran has informed the agency that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran plans to produce low-enriched uranium … up to 20 percent at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant to comply with a law recently passed by the country’s parliament, the IAEA said in a statement.
The IAEA added that Iran did not say when it intended to boost enrichment, although the agency has “24/7 inspectors in Iran who have regular access to Fordo.” The bill also called on Iran to expel those inspectors, although it seems Tehran still hasn’t decided to take that step.
Salehi said Iran would need to replace natural uranium in centrifuges at Fordo with material already enriched to 4% to start the 20% process.
“It must be done under the supervision of the IAEA,” added Salehi.
Since the deal’s collapse, Iran has resumed fortification in Fordo, near the Shia holy city of Qom, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran.
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Fordo is shielded by the mountains and surrounded by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It’s about the size of a soccer field, big enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and tough enough to make U.S. officials suspect it had military purpose when they made the site public in 2009.
In the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal also called for Fordo to be transformed into a research and development facility.
Under former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran started with a 20% fortification. Israel, which has its own undeclared nuclear weapons program, feared that Tehran was building a bomb.
After Fordo’s discovery, the US worked on so-called “bunker buster” bombs intended to attack such facilities. At one point when Israel threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear sites like Fordo, US officials reportedly showed them a video of a bunker cracker destroying a mock-up of Fordo in America’s southwestern desert.
Israel, which has continued to criticize Iran’s nuclear program under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not comment immediately on Saturday.
As of now, Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5%, in violation of the agreement’s limit of 3.67%. Experts say Iran has now stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear weapons, if it chooses to pursue them. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran has separately begun construction of a new site at Fordo, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press in December.
Iran’s announcement coincides with the anniversary of the US drone that attacked Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last year. That attack later saw Iran retaliate by launching a ballistic missile strike that injured dozens of US troops in Iraq. Tehran also accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane that night, killing all 176 people on board.
As the anniversary approached, the US sent B-52 bombers over the region and sent a nuclear-powered submarine into the Persian Gulf.
On Thursday, sailors discovered a limpet mine on a tanker in the Persian Gulf off Iraq near the Iranian border, as it prepared to transfer fuel to another tanker owned by a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. No one has claimed responsibility for the mining, although it comes after a series of similar attacks in 2019 that the US Navy blamed Iran. Tehran denied involvement.
In November, an Iranian scientist who founded the country’s military nuclear program two decades earlier was killed in an attack that Tehran blames on Israel.