Give up on Europe: Khamenei – New breach of Iran N-deal

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VIENNA, Sept 26, (RTRS): Iran has committed a further breach of its nuclear deal with major powers by enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges, and plans to install more of those advanced machines than previously announced, a UN nuclear watchdog report showed on Thursday.

“On 25 September 2019, the Agency verified that all of the (centrifuge) cascades already installed in R&D lines 2 and 3 … were accumulating, or had been prepared to accumulate, enriched uranium,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in the report to member states obtained by Reuters. Iran is breaching the restrictions of its landmark nuclear deal with major powers step by step in response to US sanctions imposed on it since Washington pulled out of the agreement last year.

The deal only allows Iran to accumulate enriched uranium with its first-generation IR-1 centrifuges. Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday European countries were unlikely to help Iran against US sanctions, and Tehran “should give up all hope” in that regard, according to his official website.

Britain, France and Germany, parties to a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have tried to set up a trade mechanism to barter humanitarian and food goods with Iran after the United States withdrew from the deal last year and re-imposed sanctions. But the mechanism is still not operational. Iran has repeatedly said it will ramp up its nuclear activities unless the European countries do more to protect its economy from the impact of the US sanctions.

“Despite their promises, the Europeans have practically adhered to America’s sanctions and have not taken any action and are unlikely to do anything for the Islamic Republic in the future. So one should give up all hope on Europeans,” Khamenei was quoted as saying. “There should be no trust in countries that have held the banner of hostility to (Iran’s) Islamic system, led by the United States and some European countries, because they are openly hostile to the Iranian people,” Khamenei said.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday took steps to bar senior Iranian officials and their immediate family from entering the United States as immigrants or non-immigrants, the White House said in a proclamation. The proclamation repeated US accusations that Iran sponsors terrorism, arbitrarily detains American citizens, threatens its neighbors and carries out cyber attacks.

“Given that this behavior threatens peace and stability in the Middle East and beyond, I have determined that it is in the interest of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or non-immigrants, of senior government officials of Iran, and their immediate family members,” Trump said in the proclamation.

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