Iran ready to dilute enriched uranium if all sanctions lifted

Iran's uranium enrichment facilities. (Source: IRNA)

JAKARTA - Iran is ready to dilute highly enriched uranium if the United States lifts all sanctions against Tehran, the head of the country's atomic energy agency said on Monday, after the two countries resumed talks.

"In conclusion, responding to a question about the possibility of diluting 60 percent enriched uranium, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization said this depends on whether all sanctions will be lifted in return," the official IRNA news agency reported, referring to the head of the agency Mohammad Eslami, without mentioning whether this includes all sanctions against Iran or only sanctions imposed by the United States, as reported by Al Arabiya from AFP (10/2).

Iran and the United States are known to have held talks in Oman last Friday, after a year of tension. Before the escalation due to the Israeli attack last June, Iran and the US were about to hold the sixth round of negotiations for a new nuclear deal.

Uranium enrichment means mixing it with a mixture of materials to reduce the enrichment rate, so that the final product does not exceed a certain enrichment threshold.

Prior to the US and Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities in June last year, Iran had enriched uranium to 60 percent, far exceeding the 3.67 percent limit allowed under the now defunct nuclear deal reached with world powers in 2015.

Western countries, led by the United States, suspect Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies.

According to the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to 60 percent.

It is also not known where the more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium that Iran had before the war ended, with the last UN inspectors recording its location on June 10.

Such stockpiles could allow Iran to build more than nine nuclear bombs if enrichment reaches 90 percent.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Iran to be subjected to a total ban on enrichment, a condition that Tehran cannot accept and is far less advantageous than the 2015 agreement.

Iran insists it has the right to have a civilian nuclear program under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran and 190 other countries have signed.

Long before the current situation, Iran along with the US, China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the EU agreed to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), under which sanctions against Iran were lifted in compensation for Tehran limiting its uranium enrichment.

However, President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement during his first term in 2018. After that, Iran openly violated the agreed restrictions.