Iran’s nuclear countermeasure motion advanced at top parliamentary committee

A top Iranian parliamentary committee advances a motion outlining the Islamic Republic’s nuclear countermeasures against the United States’ sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

Convening on Tuesday, Majlis (the Iranian Parliament)'s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy approved Articles 4 and 5 of “the Strategic Countermeasures against the Sanctions” motion.

Article 4 tasks the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the country’s nuclear agency, with setting up a “uranium metal production plant,” said the committee’s Spokesman Abolfazl Amouei, IRNA reported. And Article 5 requests the nuclear authority to draw up the plan and identify the suitable whereabouts for establishment of a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor, he added.

The committee has already approved the first three articles of the motion that oblige the government to commit to enrichment of uranium at 20-percent purity, expand low-enriched uranium stockpiles, and deploy new-generation centrifuges.

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Majlis approved a singular urgency of the motion during an open session on November 2.

The US returned its sanctions against Iran in 2018 after leaving a historic 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and other countries, namely the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany. Washington then returned the sanctions that the deal had lifted and began scaring others into toeing the sanction line.

The US’s measures came, although the deal that is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has been ratified in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution. The actions also marked a great stride towards unilateralism given its sheer violation of the JCPOA’s multi-party nature.

After the US’s departure from the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic began adopting gradual nuclear countermeasures to retaliate for the US and others’ non-commitment to the nuclear agreement.

Tehran said in January it was suspending its obligations under the deal and would abandon restrictions on uranium enrichment and other activities unless the sanctions were lifted.

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