By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel — June 17, 2019 … Iran announced on Monday that it would abandon the 2015 nuclear pact and violate a central element of the 2015 agreement to limit its nuclear program. Iran is making the threat to secure help from Europe to offset the effects of American sanctions which addresses Iranian terror activities and more recently attacking commercial ships in the Gulf of Oman .
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said that within days it expects to have produced and kept in its stockpiles more low-enriched uranium — the sort used to fuel power plants — than allowed by the 2015 deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from last year. The agency made clear it would begin enriching the uranium to much higher levels of purity, edging it closer to what would be necessary to produce nuclear weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Iranian threat: “Israel stands at the forefront with the US, with moderate Arab countries and with other countries, in opposition to Iranian aggression.”
“Today Iran threatened to enrich uranium to higher levels beyond that which is permitted by the nuclear agreement. This does not surprise us because just as when we brought the secret nuclear archive from Teheran to Israel, we discovered the extent to which Iran has violated its promise to the international community – its promise to report truthfully on its nuclear program. Should Iran make good on its current threats, and violate the nuclear agreement, the international community will need to immediately impose the sanctions on the regime that was agreed upon in advance, the ‘snapback sanctions’.
In any case, Israel will not allow Iran to achieve nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu concluded: “Alongside the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, we are tightening – in an unprecedented manner – relations with additional countries in the Arab and Islamic world. These countries increasingly understand that Israel is not their enemy. On the contrary, Israel is a steadfast and stable ally that – with them – seeks to ensure the future of our region.”
Speaking at the Arak heavy water facility in a live broadcast Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on state TV: “We have quadrupled the rate of enrichment and even increased it more recently, so that in 10 days it will bypass the 300 kg limit. Kamalvandi said Iran needs 5 percent enrichment for its nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr, and 20 percent enrichment for a Tehran research reactor.
The 20 percent level is only one step away from weapons-grade material.
Iranian officials continue to threaten Israel by saying that they are improving the accuracy of their country’s missiles and warning that terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah were prepared to unleash an “inferno” on the Jewish state. One of the core pillars and revolutionary ideals of the Islamic Republic is destroying the Jewish state.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently stated that “the Zionist regime will perish in the not so far future. Our strategy is to erase Israel from the map.”