Hasan Rouhani: Iran Can Enrich Up To 90 Percent Uranium

Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility. (Wikimedia Commons/Tasnim News Agency/Hossein Heidarpour)

JAKARTA - Iranian President Hasan Rouhani said his country could enrich uranium to 90 percent purity, weapons grade, if its nuclear reactors needed it.

However, at the same time he also underlined, Iran is still open to communication to return to the 2015 Nuclear Agreement, limiting its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

"Iran's Atomic Energy Organization can enrich uranium by 20 percent and 60 percent and if one day our reactor needs it, it can enrich uranium to 90 percent purity," President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting, the semi-official Mehr news agency was quoted as saying. Reuters Wednesday 14 July.

The nuclear deal limits the fissile purity, under which Tehran can refine uranium at 3.67 percent, well below the 20 percent it reached before the agreement and well below the 90 percent suitable for nuclear weapons. Iran has long denied any intention of developing nuclear weapons.

Iran has violated the deal in several ways after the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018, including by producing up to 20 percent and 60 percent enriched uranium.

Rouhani, who will hand over the presidency to president-elect Ebrahim Raisi on Aug. 5, implicitly criticized Iran's top decision-makers for not allowing his government to revive the nuclear deal during his tenure.

"They took the opportunity to reach an agreement from this government. We regret missing this opportunity," Rouhani was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

To note, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has the final say on all the country's issues such as nuclear policy.

Like Khamenei, Raisi has supported indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, which began on April 9 in Vienna, Austria aimed at bringing the United States back into full compliance with the deal.

The United States withdrew from the deal three years ago, saying it was biased in favor of Iran, and reimposed crippling sanctions against Iran under Donald Trump.

However, the Vienna talks were postponed to 20 June and no date has been set for the next round of negotiations. Iranian and Western officials say significant gaps remain to be resolved.