Behrouz Kamalvandi made the remarks in a meeting with a number of Iranian lawmakers on Saturday, referring to the law – dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, which is aimed at countering sanctions and promoting the country’s peaceful nuclear program.

He said the parliamentary law has “provided good conditions for the country and today our [uranium] enrichment has officially reached 60% in accordance with this law.”

The Iranian official added that the country is pursuing continuous and non-stop research and development plans while its efforts to update a new generation of centrifuge machines are “at its best.”

Under the parliament’s law, the Iranian administration is required to restrict the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspections and accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear program beyond the limits set under the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), such as ending the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Meanwhile, Head of the AEOI Mohammad Eslami said on Saturday the parliamentary law has contributed to the development of Iran’s nuclear industry, saying the capacity for the enrichment of uranium in Iran is currently twice as high as the total capacity since the beginning of the nuclear industry in the country.

He added that a comprehensive document has been devised for the development of industries and creation of domestic capacities in various industries of the country, noting that the AEOI is acting based on this document.

The Iranian nuclear chief emphasized that power generation by nuclear energy has provided considerable economic benefits for the country, reduced fossil fuel consumption and prevented environmental problems.

Eslami also noted that the development of nuclear energy can help other sectors, including medicine and agriculture.

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The head of AEOI also called Parliament’s law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, as a golden opportunity, saying that were got the chance to launch 20% Uranium enrichment in 24 hours.

He went on to quote the Leader of the Islamic Revolution that “Iran will not change its stance regarding its nuclear program, and that Tehran may initiate uranium enrichment up to 60% based on the domestic need of the country”, saying, “We have the capacity now, and as the law has allowed us, we can increase our Uranium enrichment up to 60% in 24 hours.”

Referring to a recent joint statement between the Iranian nuclear agency and the IAEA which had been agreed upon during a visit of the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to Tehran, Salehi said that Iran’s joint statement with the IAEA has no hidden aspect, and Grossi declared that IAEA recognizes Iran’s right to enforce the parliamentary law.

After the US exit from the world powers’ nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and imposing the unprecedented sanctions on the Iranian nation, followed by the indifference of the European parties to the need for compensating Iran’s losses as a result of the US violation of the international accord, Iran started reducing its JCPOA commitments in five steps and finally suspended voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol on Monday midnight.

Before ceasing the Additional protocol, Iran had begun enriching uranium to 20% purity in accordance with a piece of legislation approved by the parliament dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions in early last December, setting a Feb. 21 deadline for Biden administration to lift the US sanctions.

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The Islamic Republic will not step back from its logical positions on the nuclear issue and Iran will increase uranium enrichment to 60% if needed, the Supreme Leader underlined.

He reiterated that the Islamic Republic will not retreat from its rational stance on the nuclear issue and will pursue enriching uranium to the extent that is required for the interest of the country even up to 60 percent enrichment.

Commenting on the strategic law of sanctions removal passed by Majlis, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out that the law should be carefully followed as it is “good”.

He advised the Iranian lawmakers (parliamentarians) and the government to cooperate in unison.

The result of this will be nothing but being obnoxious, Supreme Leader further noted.

Pointing to a recent law ratified by the Iranian parliament obliging the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to scale back some of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Supreme Leader asserted that the parliament ratified a law and the administration welcomed; they carried out some works that should be done until yesterday and hopefully, another part of the law will be implemented tomorrow.

He further referred to interpretation of the parliament from the way the administration is doing his job in this respect, noting that such differences can be resolved and the two sides should cooperate and avoid escaping or escalating such differences, which could be interpreted as a divide in the country.

The administration considers itself obliged to implement laws and the legislature which is a good law should be implemented carefully, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution emphasized.

He also described recent comments made by the US and three European states on Iran as arrogant, bullying, and unfair.

The rhetoric made by the US and three European countries on Iran’s scaling back of its obligations concerning the nuclear deal is the wrong attitude, Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that the Islamic Republic complied with its commitments based on the Islamic teachings from day one until a long period, but the other parties who did not abide by their obligations were these four states; thus, they should be held accountable for their behavior.

The Supreme Leader further said that such behavior will make them more pariah in the eyes of the Iranian people.

He went on to say, the US withdrew from the JCPOA and other signatories to the deal collaborated with the Americans in this respect; so, the Holy Quran teaches that the Islamic Republic must abandon the agreement, although, the respectful Iranian government did not relinquish the commitments, it gradually scaled back parts of the obligations, which are reversible if the other signatories carry out their end of the bargain.

Meanwhile, the clown Zionist regime is permanently saying that they will not allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons; however, it should be said if the Islamic Republic had decided to attain atomic bomb, the Zionists and the bigger powers could not have been capable of getting in the way of the Iranians, he added.

The Islamic tenets are the ones that are prohibiting the production of nuclear arms for the Islamic Republic, because any weapons including nuclear or chemical ones, which lead to the death of people and destruction, are forbidden based on Islamic values, the Supreme Leader noted.

Recalling the massacre of more than 220,000 people following the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II as well as the ongoing siege of Yemen and the daily pounding of markets, hospitals, and schools in the war-torn country, Ayatollah Khamenei stated that the killing of civilians is the method of the Americans and Westerners, which is not acceptable by the Islamic Republic; therefore, Tehran does not think about nuclear weapons.

But the Iranian government is determined to have nuclear capabilities proper to the requirements of this big country; so, the level of uranium enrichment will not be limited to 20 percent and the amount may increase to 60 percent for nuclear propellants or other activities, he added.

The Supreme Leader also said that there is a multi-year contract between Iran and the six world powers and if they abide by their obligations, Iran will comply with its commitment; however, the Westerners are well aware that Iranians do not seek nuclear weapons.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the issue of a nuclear weapon is a pretext, they oppose Iran’s access to conventional weapons, because they want to prevent Iran from attaining any kind of military might.

Noting that nuclear power plants can provide the world nations with cheaper and cleaner energy and they will turn into one of the main sources of energy in the near future, he underlined that Iran needs to start enriching uranium today to meet its requirements in this regard because tomorrow is late.

The West wants Iran to be in need of the Westerners whenever the Islamic country requires nuclear energy in a bid to use the need as a tool to impose their bullying and ransom policies on the Islamic Republic, he warned.

The Islamic Republic will not back down on nuclear issues as it has done in other issues and it will continue the path based on the country’s interests and needs, the Leader stated.

The meeting was held observing health protocols in Imam Khomeini Mosque, downtown Tehran.

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Addressing the 59th annual meeting of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on Thursday, Rouhani said Tehran faces no restrictions today when it comes to atomic energy.

“Today, uranium enrichment is carried out more than that time [before the deal was reached] and Iran did not stand idly by: If they [the other deal parties] reduced their commitments, we did so as well,” Iran President added.

He said when US President Donald Trump chose to pull his country out of the multilateral nuclear deal, Iran remained patient and refused to make the same “mistake.”

Iran, instead, urged the remaining parties to the deal to compensate for Washington’s exit and told them that “if they make up for [the US exit], we would stay in the JCPOA, and if they fail do so, we will, in turn, reduce our commitments,” Rouhani said.

Rouhani said Iran adopted the “right policy and did the right thing,” prompting the entire world — even the Europeans themselves and Trump’s own friends — to condemn the US president’s move as “wrong.”

The Iranian president added that Tehran proved with the JCPOA that it seeks interaction with the world.

Rouhani once again slammed the US president for violating the deal and unilaterally pulling out of it, saying Trump’s “unpredictable” behavior has caused troubles not only for Iran but the whole world.

The Iranian chief executive also criticized the US for threatening the European parties to the nuclear deal — France, Britain, and Germany — and pushing them to withdraw from the accord.

Rouhani’s remarks came after The Washington Post reported that Trump’s administration had threatened to impose a 25-percent tariff on European automobile imports if the trio — known as EU3 or E3 — refused to formally accuse Iran of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The report was published shortly after the European trio said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism, which amounts to a formal accusation that Tehran had broken the terms of the deal.

The European measure could lead to the restoration of anti-Iran UN sanctions, which had been lifted by the JCPOA.

The US under Trump left the JCPOA in May 2018 and restored the sanctions that it had lifted. The UK, France, and Germany also bowed to the sanctions and refused to meet Iran’s business interests under the deal despite an earlier pledge to do so.

Trump has been critical of the agreement and called it the worst deal ever negotiated, proposing new negotiations to reach a “better” accord.

This comes as the JCPOA has been endorsed by the UN Security Council as a resolution.

Elsewhere in his Thursday’s remarks, Rouhani said Iran has grown stronger than ever despite all the international pressure facing the country and will continue to tread the path of progress despite US plots and economic sanctions.

Rouhani further hailed Iran’s recent move to target the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq in retaliation for the US assassination of senior Iranian military commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

It is very rare that a country “stands up to the US and openly launches missiles against an important American military base in the region,” he said, adding the attack forced the US “to retreat from its threat.”

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Irannews reports White House President’s reaction to the uranium enrichment told by CNN;

Donald Trump has issued a warning to Iran after moving to increase uranium enrichment beyond the purity threshold reached in a landmark nuclear deal Washington pulled out of last year.

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He made the remarks on Friday while addressing the 16th report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on verification of Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

If one wants to preserve Iran nuclear deal, the remaining parties should guarantee Iran’s benefits of JCPOA interests by adopting urgent and suitable acts, he reiterated.

Gharibabadi described the report as indicating Iran’s good-will for preserving multilateralism in international relations and as verifying its compliance.

Like 15 previous reports, IAEA once again reiterated that since the beginning of the JCPOA implementation, it has continued monitoring Iran’s compliance with its nuclear-related commitments, he added.

The IAEA new report has also explicitly referred to Supreme National Security Council’s order on stopping some of Iran’s measures under the JCPOA and in the framework of articles 26 and 36, he noted.

The Iranian envoy further said that based on the 16th report, Iran’s uranium stockpile has been announced 241.6 kg until August 19, including 25.1 kg 4.5% uranium.

Based on the JCPOA, Iran is permitted to have 202.8 kg enriched uranium.

This shows Iran’s strong determination on taking the next steps regarding the deal, he said.

Tehran has rowed back on its nuclear commitments twice in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the 2015 deal.

Iran says its reciprocal measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from unilateral US sanctions which were imposed last year when President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.

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The Velayaee Faction head, Hamidreza Hajibabaei quoted Salehi as saying in the today’s meeting that if Iran had left the JCPOA immediately after the US withdrawal, the Americans with the support of Europe would have been able to form a global coalition against Iran and would have revived all the previous UN resolutions.

The Iran nuclear chief added that the decisions that Iran has made so far in reaction to the US illegal withdrawal and lack of action on the part of other parties to make up for Iran’s losses are made by a committee dubbed the JCPOA Implementation Monitoring Board which was formed at the behest of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) after signing the accord.

Hajibabaei further cited Salehi as adding that Iran’s remaining in the nuclear deal did not allow the formation of the global coalition and has made the enemies acknowledge Iran’s power on the global stage.

“We have built a hall to assemble advanced and new centrifuges in which about 20 IR6 centrifuges have been already assembled. We have the capability to return to pre-JCPOA era and you will soon hear good news about Arak,” Salehi said.

The lawmaker further noted Salehi had said that the Iranian scientists at the atomic agency had made good progress in the field of nuclear propellers and that the volume of the enriched uranium had increased to 370 kg from 300 kg.

He also added that the Iranian young experts had been working on IR6 and IR7 types of centrifuges with work on IR8 centrifuges on their agenda.

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Kamalvandi also touched upon production of heavy water in his remarks, saying that Iran is not obliged to restrict heavy water to 130 tons. “Although our heavy water exports are not big figures, we have diverse markets which include European and non-European countries.”

Today Iran is exporting heavy water and other products such as Oxygen-18 which shows that Iran is able to export high-tech products.

He said that Iran should not lose any of these markets.

Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), entitled Iran with the right to enrich uranium at a certain level. After US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018, Trump administration imposed several sanctions against Iran, one of which targeted enriched uranium and heavy water sales of the country.

Since the implementation of this unilateral measure, Iran has stocked all its enriched uranium and in early July, IAEA confirmed that Iran’s stockpile of uranium has exceeded the 300kg limit agreed in the deal. Iran is reducing commitments to the nuclear deal in a step-by-step and transparent manner to create a balance since other parties have so far failed to adhere to their commitments. Tehran says all its measures are reversible as soon as other parties can safeguard its economic interests from damages US unilateral sanctions.

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On May 8, the anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal (JCPOA), Iran announced that it was partially discontinuing its obligations under the JCPOA and urged nuclear deal remaining signatories – China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom – to shield Tehran from Washington’s sanctions.

Tehran says its countermeasures fit within its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal, and that it will reverse the measures once its demands are met.

As a first step, Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile to a level above the 300 kilograms set by the JCPOA.

In the second step, Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA-limit of 3.76 percent.

Today, Kamalvandi told reporters that Iran’s actions will include suspension of commitments, which means that Iran will not put aside its commitments but it will only suspend them.

The spokesman went on to explain that Iran will resume the suspended commitments if the other parties come back to their commitments.

“If their actions are serious, there may be no need to take a third step, but if the other parties do not take serious steps, there definitely will be more steps,” Kamalvandi asserted.

He warned that if Iran has to take more steps after the third step to reduce its JCPOA commitments, there may be no JCPOA anymore.

In response to a question about the volume of enriched uranium in accordance with Iran’s second step, he said that the enriched uranium stockpiles are increasing, adding that Iran’s atomic energy organization is using full capacity of its heavy water. He noted that the reductions in Iran’s commitments means that the heavy water stockpiles have surpassed 130 tons while the stockpiled enriched uranium also exceeded 300kg.

Elsewhere, he said that it is up to the Foreign Ministry to assess the conditions and to determine which steps the other parties have taken to abide by their commitments.

Kamalvandi added while the Europeans say they want to take actions to abide by their commitments, they have done nothing in practice so far.

The spokesman also said that as time passes, Iran increases the rate of uranium enrichment.

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Naghavi Hosseini has written in his tweet that Iran will vigorously continue its nuclear activities in line with the previously announced policies, and it is up to the Europeans who have to come up with a solution before it is too late.

The spokesman’s remarks came within only hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also announced on Saturday that reductions in JCPOA commitments will continue in accordance with the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On May 8, the anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal (JCPOA), Iran announced that it was partially discontinuing its obligations under the JCPOA and urged nuclear deal remaining signatories – China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom – to shield Tehran from Washington’s sanctions.

Tehran says its countermeasures fit within its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal, and that it will reverse the measures once its demands are met.

Iran has already implemented the first and second phases of its actions in reducing its JCPOA commitments by increasing the stockpile of enriched uranium above the 300kg outlined by the JCPOA and has increased the level of uranium enrichment above the 3.67% level. It has warned that it will increase the enrichment level to 20% if the other parties continue to not abide by their commitments under the deal.

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