Israel wants Iran's "pressure" on its nuclear program to increase. "This morning, we were informed of another violation (...) by Iran, this time in its effort to achieve nuclear weapons," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. announcement by Tehran of a further reduction of its nuclear commitments.
"This is not the time to hold talks with Iran, it is time to increase the pressure" on the Islamic Republic, also added Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran announced Wednesday a further reduction of its nuclear commitments by blowing up any limits to research and development in this area, after finding the temporary failure of a French mediation to start a dialogue between Tehran and Washington.
End of the ultimatum
Since May, Iran has retracted certain restrictions on its nuclear program that it had granted under the Vienna agreement concluded in 2015.
It has thus increased its stocks of enriched uranium beyond the limit set by the agreement, and enriched this ore to a level prohibited by this text, ie more than 3.67%. In terms of research and development, the agreement imposes significant restrictions in the field of centrifuges, a key element of the uranium enrichment cycle.
On July 7, Iran gave 60 days, until Thursday, to the other parties to the agreement - Germany, China, France, the United Kingdom and Russia - to help it bypass US sanctions that paralyze the Iranian economy, on pain of seeing it free from other obligations.
Iran is Israel's main enemy and Benjamin Netanyahu strongly campaigned against the 2015 deal and urged President Donald Trump to step down. The latter pulled his country out of the deal in 2018 and subsequently imposed harsher sanctions on Iran.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have intensified in recent weeks. Last week, Israel accused Tehran of seeking to manufacture, through its ally, the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement, precision missiles that could cause "enormous loss of life" on its territory.
With AFP