UN watchdog confirms further Iranian breach of nuclear deal

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Iran has told the United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency that it has begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal&comma; in what would be another violation of the landmark nuclear deal with world powers&comma; the organisation said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Iran maintains its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal production are part of its &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;declared aim to design an improved type of fuel”&comma; the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency &lpar;IAEA&rpar; said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But uranium metal can also be used for a nuclear bomb and research on its production is specifically prohibited in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action &lpar;JCPOA&rpar; signed with world powers in 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb&comma; something Iran insists it does not want to do&period; Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb&comma; but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>IAEA inspectors visited the Isfahan plant where Iran has said it plans to conduct the research on January 10&comma; and officials were informed by Tehran on January 13 that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;modification and installation of the relevant equipment for the mentioned R&amp&semi;D activities have been already started”&comma; the agency said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA&comma; Kazem Gharibabadi&comma; repeated that in a tweet on Wednesday&comma; adding that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;natural uranium will be used to produce uranium metal in the first stage”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He told Iran’s official news agency IRNA that the move would elevate Iran to the level of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;progressive nations in production of new fuels”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was the latest in a string of violations of the JCPOA that Iran has undertaken since President Donald Trump pulled the United States unilaterally out of the deal in 2018&comma; saying it needed to be renegotiated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tehran has been using the violations to put pressure on the other signatories — Britain&comma; France&comma; Germany&comma; China and Russia — to provide more incentives to Iran to offset crippling American sanctions reimposed after the US left the deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>President-elect Joe Biden&comma; who was vice president when the JCPOA was negotiated&comma; has said he hopes to return the US to the deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Britain&comma; France and Germany said last week that Iran &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;risks compromising” chances of diplomacy with Washington after Tehran announced another violation — that it was starting to enrich uranium to 20&percnt; purity&comma; a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The foreign ministers of the three European nations said in a joint statement then that the Iranian activity &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;has no credible civil justification”&period; They said the enrichment was a clear violation of the deal and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;further hollows out the agreement”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Germany’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on Thursday&comma; but the announcement on the production of uranium metal now further complicates trying to get Washington back on board&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Those working to save the deal also note that despite the violations&comma; Iran continues to allow inspectors to access all sites in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; Iran has fired cruise missiles on Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman&comma; state media reported&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This comes amid heightened tensions with the US over Iran’s nuclear programme and an American pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>State TV showed footage of missiles being launched from both land units and ships at sea but did not elaborate on their range or other details&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In July&comma; Iran said it test-fired cruise missiles with a range of some 280km &lpar;275 miles&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Enemies should know that any violation and invasion of Iranian marine borders will be targeted by the cruise missiles from both coast and sea&comma;” Admiral Hamzeh Ali Kaviani&comma; spokesman for the exercise&comma; said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The two-day drill began on Wednesday when the country’s navy inaugurated its largest military vessel&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And it took place under surveillance of what appeared to be a US nuclear submarine dispatched to the region amid heightened tensions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Helicopter footage of the exercise released by Iran’s navy showed what resembled an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine&comma; the USS Georgia&comma; which the US navy last month said had been sent to the Persian Gulf — a rare announcement aimed at underscoring American military might in the region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Iran’s navy did not identify the submarine but warned the boat to steer clear of the area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed11e6b3936">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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