Trump accuses Iran of secret nuclear enrichment, says sanctions to be cranked up "substantially"

By Doina Chiacu and Francois Murphy

 

A staff member removes the Iranian flag from the stage after a group picture during the Iran nuclear talks at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON/VIENNA (Reuters) - President Donald Trump accused Iran on Wednesday of secretly enriching uranium for a long time and said U.S. sanctions would be increased "substantially" soon, as the U.N. nuclear watchdog held an emergency meeting on Tehran's breach of a nuclear deal.

 

Washington used the session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors to accuse Iranof extortion after it inched past the deal's limit on enrichment levels, while still offering to hold talks with Tehran.

 

Iran says it is reacting to harsh U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Tehran since Trump pulled out of world powers' 2015 nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic last year, and says all its steps were reversible if Washington returned to the deal.

 

"Iran has long been secretly 'enriching,' in total violation of the terrible 150 Billion Dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama Administration," Trump said on Twitter.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran on Wednesday of secretly enriching uranium for a long time and said U.S. sanctions would be increased "substantially" soon, as the U.N. nuclear watchdog held an emergency meeting on Tehran's breach of a nuclear deal. Nathan Frandino has more.

 

"Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!"

 

While Iran was found to have had covert enrichment sites long before the nuclear accord, the deal also imposed the most intrusive nuclear supervision on Iran of any country, and there has been no serious suggestion Iran is secretly enriching now.

 

The deal confines enrichment in Iran to its Natanz site, which was itself exposed in 2003. Any clandestine enrichment elsewhere would be a grave breach of the deal. It was not immediately clear from Trump’s comments whether he was referring to previous, long-known activities or making a new allegation.

 

"NOTHING TO HIDE," IRAN SAYS

Kazim Gharib Abadi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told reporters following Trump's accusation that all Tehran's nuclear activities were being monitored by IAEA inspectors.

 

"We have nothing to hide," he said after the IAEA meeting in Vienna, which was called at the request of Washington.

 

Abadi said in a German newspaper interview published earlier in the day that Tehran intended to preserve the nuclear deal if all other signatories honoured their commitments under it.

 

"Everything can be reversed within a single hour - if all of our partners in the treaty would just fulfil their obligations in the same way," he told the weekly Die Zeit.

 

In the past two weeks Iran has breached two limits pivotal to the 2015 deal, which aimed to extended the time Iranwould need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to do so, to a year from around 2-3 months.

 

The Trump administration says it is open to negotiations with Iran on a more far-reaching agreement on nuclear and security issues. Iran has conditioned any talks on first being able to export as much oil as it did before the U.S. withdrawal.

 

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated, culminating in a plan for U.S. air strikes on Iran last month that Trump called off at the last minute.

 

"There is no credible reason for Iran to expand its nuclear programme, and there is no way to read this as anything other than a crude and transparent attempt to extort payments from the international community," the U.S. mission to the IAEA said in a statement delivered at the closed-door agency board meeting.

 

"We call on Iran to reverse its recent nuclear steps and cease any plans for further advancements in the future. The United States has made clear that we are open to negotiation without preconditions, and that we are offering Iran the possibility of a full normalisation of relations."

 

Iran says it will continue to breach the deal's caps one by one until it receives the economic windfall - trade and investment deals with the wider world - promised under terms of the agreement.

 

IRAN RAISING ENRICHMENT LEVEL

In a separate closed-door meeting with member states on Wednesday, IAEA inspectors confirmed that Iran was now enriching uranium to 4.5% purity, above the 3.67% limit set by its deal. This would be Iran's second breach of the deal in as many weeks, diplomats familiar with the figures said.

 

However, that is still far below the 20% to which Iran refined uranium before the deal, and the roughly 90% needed to yield bomb-grade nuclear fuel.

 

"The latest steps indicate that Tehran's leadership has made a decision to move onto the offensive to create leverage vis-à-vis the international community and bring about a solution to its constraints," a Western intelligence source told Reuters.

 

Washington is set on isolating Iran to force it to negotiate stricter limits on its nuclear programme and, for the first time, to address calls to curb its ballistic missile programme and its role around the conflict-ridden Middle East.

 

EUROPEAN POWERS IN DILEMMA

Diplomats from several countries on the IAEA board said that despite likely fiery U.S.-Iranian exchanges at the meeting, the board was not expected to take any concrete action.

 

While Iran has breached terms of the deal which the IAEA is policing, the U.N. watchdog is not a party to the accord and Tehran has not violated the nuclear Safeguards Agreement binding it to the agency.

 

Britain, France and Germany are considering their next move, torn between the urge to show their displeasure at Iran's breaches and wanting to keep alive a deal that signatories in 2015 touted as vital to preventing wider war in the Middle East.

 

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai and Tassilo Hummel in Berlin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-11

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Good luck to Trump with his strongman tactics. Takes a lot of stones to go hard against these nutters, like Trump is doing. But then as we saw, appeasing the Iranian regime and giving them those pallets of used banknotes did nothing whatsoever to improve safety. In fact it seemed to have emboldened them and sped up their drive for making nuclear bombs.

 Huge punitive sanctions - totally implode their economy - cause civil unrest - bye bye mad mullahs. I think that is the playbook Donald is reading from.

5 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Good luck to Trump with his strongman tactics. Takes a lot of stones to go hard against these nutters, like Trump is doing. But then as we saw, appeasing the Iranian regime and giving them those pallets of used banknotes did nothing whatsoever to improve safety. In fact it seemed to have emboldened them and sped up their drive for making nuclear bombs.

 Huge punitive sanctions - totally implode their economy - cause civil unrest - bye bye mad mullahs. I think that is the playbook Donald is reading from.

Stop making things up. Even the Israeli secret service believed Iran was complying with the deal, as did the USA's own intelligence services.

10 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Stop making things up. Even the Israeli secret service believed Iran was complying with the deal, as did the USA's own intelligence services.

Hogwash, where did you get this information? Iran never stopped for one moment working in secret to enrich uranium and the proof is that nary few months passed since the new sanctions and what do you know, Iran declared it is enriching uranium way above the limit allowed, where is that comes from if not for the fact that they didnt stop while pulling to wool over the eyes of sleepy Europe and staunch far left's Iran/ Palestinians/ Islam/Terrorists cause sympathizers whos ok with Iran denial of Israel right to exist and often calls for the destruction of Israel (and America in the same breath)...

The inspectors are still there Donald has allready sanctioned the max out of them he is trying to strangle a country that was abiding by an agreement we the USA are on the wrong side of ethnics on this one imo when the inspectors are kicked out is the time to worry untle then it’s just more Donald bs

4 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Hogwash, where did you get this information? Iran never stopped for one moment working in secret to enrich uranium and the proof is that nary few months passed since the new sanctions and what do you know, Iran declared it is enriching uranium way above the limit allowed, where is that comes from if not for the fact that they didnt stop while pulling to wool over the eyes of sleepy Europe and staunch far left's Iran/ Palestinians/ Islam/Terrorists cause sympathizers whos ok with Iran denial of Israel right to exist and often calls for the destruction of Israel (and America in the same breath)...

No one doubts that Iran kept the capacity to enrich uranium. The question is were they enriching it? Your "proof" is utterly ridiculous.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/03/iran-nuclear-deal-israel/472767/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/26/trumps-top-general-says-iran-honoring-nuke-deal/

57 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Hogwash, where did you get this information? Iran never stopped for one moment working in secret to enrich uranium and the proof is that nary few months passed since the new sanctions and what do you know, Iran declared it is enriching uranium way above the limit allowed, where is that comes from if not for the fact that they didnt stop while pulling to wool over the eyes of sleepy Europe and staunch far left's Iran/ Palestinians/ Islam/Terrorists cause sympathizers whos ok with Iran denial of Israel right to exist and often calls for the destruction of Israel (and America in the same breath)...

There is no evidence that Iran is rushing to build a nuclear weapon. In fact, U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program some time between 2002 and 2004.

You are believing the most egregious reporting on Iran from the very media you Trump supporters call False News. 

Iran has been legally exporting any LEU they made above the 300kg limit - but just two months ago the Punch and Judy administration imposed sanctions on any country that bought it. They are continuing to slowly produce it, but are now stockpiling it. It seems the amount will slowly grow by tens of kilograms.

Remember, the US violated the accord over a year ago but all the other nations are still in it. Up until now, Iran has been observing all of it, despite the massive sanctions the US imposed and stringent inspections. Although Trump and other "serious" misinformed-but-refuse-to-be-informed types or the genuinely uninformed believed that the IRI had been violating the agreement and moving towards a nuclear weapon from the start.Image from 2019 ODNI Worldwide Threat Assessment.

21 minutes ago, expatfromwyoming said:

Iran has been legally exporting any LEU they made above the 300kg limit - but just two months ago the Punch and Judy administration imposed sanctions on any country that bought it. They are continuing to slowly produce it, but are now stockpiling it. It seems the amount will slowly grow by tens of kilograms.

Remember, the US violated the accord over a year ago but all the other nations are still in it. Up until now, Iran has been observing all of it, despite the massive sanctions the US imposed and stringent inspections. Although Trump and other "serious" misinformed-but-refuse-to-be-informed types or the genuinely uninformed believed that the IRI had been violating the agreement and moving towards a nuclear weapon from the start.Image from 2019 ODNI Worldwide Threat Assessment.

And in a few minutes, a few hours or a few days the same posters you or bristling replied to will post the same lies again....

Isolating Iran economically will bring the region to a new war of unknown consequences. Regime change in Iran is unlikely to take place by pressure from the outside- least of all Trump. However, should such drastic change happen through Tehran’s full defeat, any new regime might opt to acquire the bomb. That will be on Trump.

 

The real key to resolving the conflict between Iran and Washington is to rethink relations among Washington, Tel Aviv, Tehran, and Riyadh. 

6 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Stop making things up. Even the Israeli secret service believed Iran was complying with the deal, as did the USA's own intelligence services.

Yeah, we know how reliable and honest those USA "intelligence services" were with obama running them. Corrupt and anti-American like the rest of the left.

7 minutes ago, howbri said:

Yeah, we know how reliable and honest those USA "intelligence services" were with obama running them. Corrupt and anti-American like the rest of the left.

 

Nonsense.

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

Hogwash, where did you get this information? Iran never stopped for one moment working in secret to enrich uranium and the proof is that nary few months passed since the new sanctions and what do you know, Iran declared it is enriching uranium way above the limit allowed, where is that comes from if not for the fact that they didnt stop while pulling to wool over the eyes of sleepy Europe and staunch far left's Iran/ Palestinians/ Islam/Terrorists cause sympathizers whos ok with Iran denial of Israel right to exist and often calls for the destruction of Israel (and America in the same breath)...

Stop making things up, you are falling for Trump and the Israelis lies. As for the pallets of used Bank Notes, this was Iran's own money, not the BS fools like you believe. And the US did not even give them interest on their money.

 

Catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Iran was following treaty, which had nothing to do with their ambitions on influence in the region. It was all about ending nuke program, which it did.

Trump unilaterally decided it had to include curbing Iran (and helping his buddies in Saudi Arabia) and the nasty conventional slaughter that takes place over there. Not a good idea. Separate the two. US and USSR made treaties SALT, ABM etc while engaged in proxy wars all throughout the cold war era. Trump overplayed his hand. None of our allies will side with USA if Trump starts a war. Iran's current demonstrations are meant to wake up other signatories to the treaty that they need to grow a pair and tell Trump to take a hike, that they will abide by treaty giving Iran the "honey" aka end of sanctions in exchange for stopping program, as originally agreed to. One would hope that if EU, UK, Russia, China carried out agreement Trump might back off. But he is not known for thinking things through. The USA under Trump is the greatest threat to world peace, full stop.

 

Thought this was interesting.

 

Iran announces it has surpassed uranium enrichment levels set by 2015 nuclear deal

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6056556482001/#sp=show-clips

 

Gen Keane makes a comment at the end of this piece about "Europeans" (he says UK, France or Germany) "outrageous" undermining of the US administration in what they say to Iran. The news war is full on, does anyone have any good pieces on how the UK ambassador's comments on the current White House were leaked? Were they hacked or was it subterfuge? 

1 hour ago, 503726 said:

 

Thought this was interesting.

 

Iran announces it has surpassed uranium enrichment levels set by 2015 nuclear deal

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6056556482001/#sp=show-clips

 

Gen Keane makes a comment at the end of this piece about "Europeans" (he says UK, France or Germany) "outrageous" undermining of the US administration in what they say to Iran. The news war is full on, does anyone have any good pieces on how the UK ambassador's comments on the current White House were leaked? Were they hacked or was it subterfuge? 

There is an investigation underway-Since the memos and telegrams dated back only to 2017, so not that many people will have had access to all the documents and that might help them trace who was responsible. 

Perhaps it was a Nigel Farage/Trump sycophant setting up the scenario for Farage's appointment to work with his old mate Donald.????

10 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

 appeasing the Iranian regime and giving them those pallets of used banknotes did nothing whatsoever to improve safety.

Remember, those pallets of used banknotes were theirs to begin with.

A post containing unsubstantiated speculations has been removed. 

The alleged threat of Iranian nuclear weapons can easily be overcome by adopting the demand of the Arab States, Iran, and in fact virtually the entire world, to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in the region, a policy to which the U.S. and UK have a unique obligation, and which the U.S. regularly blocks — for reasons that are hardly obscure: If the U.S. were to officially acknowledge the existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the huge flood of aid to Israel would be illegal under U.S. law, and of course, Israel’s weapons of mass destruction cannot be subject to inspection.