Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday the country is now enriching more uranium than it was before a 2015 deal with world powers that was supposed to scale back its nuclear activities, and in particular enrichment.
“We are enriching more uranium than before the deal was reached,” Rouhani said in a televised speech according to the Reuters news agency. “Pressure has increased on Iran but we continue to progress.”
Rouhani also said he is working “daily to prevent war”, despite its constant threats against Western powers, including the United Kingdom.
“The government is working daily to prevent a military confrontation or war,” he said, insisting that though dialogue between Iran and the world was difficult, it was still “possible.”
The 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was sold on the notion that it prevented Iran from producing a nuclear weapon by putting curbs on its atomic program in exchange for economic incentives. The reality is Iran has not been abiding by the deal for a long time whilst still enjoying the financial benefits of being part of the deal. They have used the well over $150 billion they received in the deal to fund terrorism across the region, with the expressed aim of destroying the Jewish state of Israel.
SIGN PETITION – Britain, end the Iran Deal
Iran has now made it public that it will no longer respect limits the deal set on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium.
Britain, France and Germany, the three European Union signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal on Tuesday triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism to stop Iran violating the pact and ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic.
The launching of the dispute mechanism marked a last-ditch effort between the European states and Iran to resolve their differences through talks, while also starting a process that could bring back punishing United Nations sanctions on Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Britain, France and Germany of giving in to “bully” Trump.
The three governments “sold out remnants of #JCPOA (the nuclear deal) to avoid new Trump tariffs,” Zarif charged. “It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?”
This is interesting wording coming from Iran, the bully of the Middle East, who have long held power over European nations in the JCPOA with threatening behaviour.
These threats are not a thing of the past. On Wednesday, Iranian President Rouhani appeared to threaten European soldiers in the Middle East. “Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger,” he said, without elaborating.
This threat follows on from an Iranian Ayatollah who threatened to “chop into pieces” the UK Ambassador to Iran.
Tensions between London and Tehran escalated at the weekend when the British ambassador to Iran was arrested on Saturday and later released over allegations that he was involved with the anti-regime protests that broke out in Iran’s capital. Then on Sunday, around 200 pro-regime protesters, understood to be radical Basij Mullahs (militia affiliated with the IRGC) surrounded the UK embassy in Tehran chanting “Death to Britain” and burning British and Israeli flags.
Sadly, the UK government has not gotten the message that the Iranian regime is bad news. Instead of appeasing them, the UK must break with the Iran Deal and reimpose sanctions to limit their destructive actions in the region.
Over 11,000 people have signed a CUFI UK petition calling on the British government to withdraw from the Iran deal.
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