Iran prepared to resume enriching uranium ‘within days’

By Omid Shamizi and Mustafa Melih Ahishali

ISTANBUL (AA) - Iran is prepared to resume its uranium-enrichment activities whenever necessary, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday.

“We are ready to resume production of highly-enriched uranium within four days,” Salehi told reporters after a cabinet meeting in the capital Tehran.

What’s more, he asserted, Iran is no longer bound by the terms of its 2015 nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of nations (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany).

The 2015 agreement had called for strict curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of longstanding U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Earlier Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would resume its uranium-enrichment activities if his country’s interests -- as they pertain to the 2015 deal -- were not guaranteed within 60 days.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal before re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran’s energy and banking sectors.