Iran is ‘playing with fire’: Trump

Washington:  US President Donald Trump warned Monday that Iran is ‘playing with fire’ after Tehran said it exceeded a limit on enriched uranium reserves under a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington.

“They know what they’re doing. They know what they’re playing with and I think they’re playing with fire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he had a message for Iran.

The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and hit Iran’s crucial oil exports and financial transactions as well as other sectors with biting sanctions.

Tehran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal, announced May 8 it would no longer respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles. It threatened to abandon further nuclear commitments unless the remaining partners — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — helped it circumvent sanctions, especially to sell its oil.

The White House had earlier said that the United States and its allies will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons while vowing to continue exerting maximum pressure on the regime.

“It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

Meanwhile, insisting Iran had done nothing wrong, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, “We have NOT violated the #JCPOA.” Zarif also said that Iran would ‘reverse’ its decision as soon as E3 — Britain, France and Germany — abide by their obligations to the deal.

Zarif’s American counterpart Mike Pompeo had accused Iran of using its nuclear program to extort the international community and threaten regional security.

A diplomat in Vienna, where the UN’s nuclear watchdog is based, told AFP that Iran had exceeded the 300 kilogram (661 pound) limit by two kilograms.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also confirmed Iran had exceeded the limit that the deal imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU).

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, called Iran’s move was ‘a cause for regret’ but also insisted that it’s a natural consequence of recent events and a result of the unprecedented pressure from the US.

“One mustn’t dramatise the situation,” Ryabkov, whose country is a close ally of Tehran, said in comments reported by Russian news agencies.

Britain’s Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter that London was deeply worried and urged Iran to come back to compliance with the nuclear deal.

“Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday about Iran’s breach of the nuclear deal limit,” the White House said.

The European Union said Friday after a crisis meeting aimed at salvaging the deal that a special payment mechanism set up to help Iran skirt the sanctions, known as INSTEX, was finally ‘operational’ and that the first transactions were being processed.

But according to Zarif, the Europeans efforts were not enough, therefore Iran will go ahead with its announced measures adding that INSTEX has not been fully implemented yet.

The 2015 deal saw Iran commit to never acquiring an atomic bomb, accept drastic limits on its nuclear program and submit to IAEA inspections in exchange for a partial lifting of crippling international sanctions.

Iran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent from July 7. That remains far short of the 90 percent purity required to build a weapon.

The latest tensions coincide with a buildup of US forces in the Gulf and a series of incidents including Iran’s shooting down of a US drone it claimed had entered its airspace.

AFP