Iran
Iran's state-run IRIB TV shows three versions of domestically-built centrifuges in a live broadcast from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, on June 6, 2018. File photo: IRIB via AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States called on Friday for an urgent meeting with members of the world's top nuclear watchdog to discuss Iran following Tehran's announcement to breach limits agreed upon in the nuclear deal.
US Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna Jackie Wolcott requested a special meeting of the board for Wednesday to discuss the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) "concerning report on the Iranian regime's nuclear program."
The US mission in Austria called for the meeting as Iran this week announced it will surpass 300-kilogram threshold of 3.67-percent enriched uranium that it agreed upon in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, also known as the Iran nuclear deal.
"The United States strongly supports the IAEA and its verification efforts in Iran," added the US statement.
US President Trump was asked about recent developments with Iran on Friday.
"We'll see what happens with. Iran has to be very, very careful," he told reporters on the White House lawn before departing for a weekend jaunt to New Jersey.
Any country on the IAEA's 32-member state Board of Governors can call for a meeting. The Board and the General Conference of Member States are the IAEA's two policy making bodies. Iran is a Member State, but not a member of the Board.
The IAEA is the world's leading international nuclear watchdog. While not a UN organ, it works closely with the United Nations and the IAEA's assessments hold much weight.
“We can confirm that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has informed the Board of Governors that the Agency verified on 1 July that Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile exceeded,” an IAEA spokesperson said this week.
Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian ambassador and its permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, announced this week that "enrichment is the right of Iran."
Iran has suffered from battering rounds of sanctions targeting its petroleum, trade, and banking sectors since the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018. Washington also took the unprecedented step of designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "foreign terrorist organization" this year.
Tehran maintains that it, like any other country, has the right to nuclear research and development. Additionally, its nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes like electrical and medicinal uses.
Getting around US sanctions on oil has been an increasingly troublesome for the Islamic Republic, as its Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh has reiterated.
A Panamanian-flagged super tanker believed to be carrying oil from Iran remains detained by Gibraltar authorities. With the help of British Royal Marines they detained the ship near the Strait on claims of being in violation of EU sanctions. The ship was destined for Syria.
Iran has called the UK's involvement an act of "piracy at sea." Tehran said on Friday it is "the duty of the official bodies in charge to retaliate and seize a British oil tanker" if the ship isn't released.
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