Will the attack on Iran's nuclear research facility derail U.S. nuclear talks?
Over the weekend, a major blackout damaged centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear research facility — and Iranian officials quickly called the disruption an act of “nuclear terrorism.” Israeli headlines and U.S. media reports said Iran attributed the attack to Israel.
With Iranian officials vowing revenge, what does this mean for the nascent nuclear talks that began in Vienna last week? The attack is likely to complicate nuclear diplomacy, further erode trust between Tehran and Washington, and may only incentivize Iran to advance its program. As Washington moves to negotiate over returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA — the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program — Israel perceives real incentives to keep up the pressure on Tehran and slow-roll the revival of a deal it opposes.
Israeli-Iranian tensions have escalated
Israeli-Iranian military conflict has been emerging from the shadows for several years. Reports suggest that Israel opened a maritime front in 2019, with several attacks on Iranian ships, expanding an already robust Israeli land and air campaign against Iranian targets. In February, Israel blamed Iran for a mine blast on an Israeli commercial shipping carrier off the Gulf of Oman, while Israel claimed responsibility for a subsequent attack off the coast of Yemen on an Iranian cargo ship believed to be associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Has Israel been sabotaging Iran? Here's what we know.
The Trump administration’s killing of Iran’s Gen. Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 also set off a new wave of escalation last spring, including an attempted Iranian cyberattack against an Israeli water system and an Israeli counterattack on an Iranian port. Attacks on Iran’s nuclear program have spiked over the past year, including an explosion at the same Natanz facility last July and the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist last November.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/will-the-attack-on-irans-nuclear-research-facility-derail-us-nuclear-talks/ar-BB1fBDw9
Iran says it will enrich uranium to highest level ever after Natanz attack
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Iran will start enriching uranium at 60 percent purity — higher than ever before — following the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility, the country's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.
Abbas Araghchi said on the state-run Press TV that Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' atomic watchdog, of its intentions. The watchdog declined to comment.
The decision to hike the level of enrichment will be seen as a further reduction in compliance by Iran with the restrictions on its nuclear program agreed to in its 2015 deal with world powers.
Iran had been enriching uranium up to 20 percent. Under the nuclear deal, it agreed to only enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-says-it-will-enrich-uranium-to-highest-level-ever-after-natanz-attack/ar-BB1fBGfL
Iran ‘not currently undertaking’ key nuclear activities, U.S. intelligence says, as Tehran vows to dial up uranium enrichment
The U.S. intelligence community reported Tuesday that Iran “is not currently undertaking” key activities necessary to produce a nuclear weapon, affirming an earlier judgment by the spy agencies at the same the Biden administration seeks to reenter a nuclear deal with Iran.
After the Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of that agreement, in May 2018, Iran abandoned some of its commitments and resumed some activities that exceed the limits set by the deal, the intelligence agencies reported in their “Annual Threat Assessment,” which will be briefed to Congress this week.
But in a sign of how rapidly intelligence on Iran may be overtaken by events, Tehran announced Tuesday a major jump in its enrichment of uranium, to 60 percent purity, following a blackout at an enrichment facility that Iran described as an act of sabotage and that has been widely attributed to Israel.
The U.S. intelligence report had cited enrichment above 60 percent as a step Iran might take in developing nuclear weapons if it did not receive sanctions relief.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-not-currently-undertaking-key-nuclear-activities-us-intelligence-says-as-tehran-vows-to-dial-up-uranium-enrichment/ar-BB1fBZjg
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