Iran surpasses uranium enrichment limit

TEHRAN (AA) – Iran confirmed Monday it has breached the 3.67% limit of uranium enrichment set by the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said Tehran began the second phase of reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal.

"We waited for two months and then started the second phase yesterday," he said in statements cited by the official IRNA news agency.

He confirmed that "we surpassed the %3.67 limit."

The spokesman said the 20% enrichment is one of the third phase of Iran scaling down its commitments under the 2015 deal.

"Twenty percent is not needed now, but if we want we will produce it. When we've put aside 3.67% enrichment we have no obstacle or problem with this action," Kamalvandi said.

An Iranian official told the Associated Press that Tehran began enriching uranium to 4.5%.

The AEOI, however, has yet to confirm the claim.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to destroy its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium and cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%.

The deal was signed by the U.K., the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany and the EU in 2015.

In October 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his country would no longer be a signatory to the deal and withdrew from the agreement in May of last year. Shortly afterward, Washington imposed sanctions on Iran.