Iran MPs advance bill to stop UN nuclear inspections, step up enrichment

Proposal, days after top nuclear scientist was assassinated, requires several more votes to become law; lawmakers chant ‘Death to Israel’ during session

File: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, welcomes Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi, for a meeting in Tehran, Iran, August 26, 2020. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
File: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, welcomes Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi, for a meeting in Tehran, Iran, August 26, 2020. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s parliament on Tuesday advanced a bill that would end UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and require the government to boost its uranium enrichment if European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal do not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions.

The vote to debate the bill, which would need to pass through several other stages before becoming law, was a show of defiance after the killing of the alleged mastermind of Iran’s military nuclear program over the weekend.

The official IRNA news agency said 251 lawmakers in the 290-seat chamber voted in favor, after which many began chanting “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

The bill would give European countries three months to ease sanctions on Iran’s key oil and gas sector, and to restore its access to the international banking system. The US imposed crippling sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement, triggering a series of escalations between the two sides.

The bill would have authorities resume enriching uranium to 20 percent, which is below the threshold needed for nuclear weapons but higher than that required for civilian applications. It would also commission new centrifuges at nuclear facilities at Natanz and the underground Fordo site.

This photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on November 5, 2019, shows centrifuge machines at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)

The bill would require another parliamentary vote to pass, as well as approval by the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog.

The bill was first tabled in parliament in August but gained new momentum after the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, seen by Israel as the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Fakhrizadeh died Friday after his car and bodyguards were targeted in a bomb and gun attack on a major road outside Tehran, heightening tensions once more between the Islamic Republic and its foes.

Military personnel stand near the flag-draped coffin of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear scientist who was killed on Friday, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, November 30, 2020. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

Israel says Iran maintains the ambition of developing nuclear weapons, pointing to Tehran’s ballistic missile program and research into other technologies. Iran long has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but has repeatedly threatened to annihilate Israel.

Iran has blamed Fakhrizadeh’s killing on Israel, which has long taken covert action against Tehran and its proxies in the region. Israel has refused to comment on the assassination, but an unnamed Israeli source told the New York Times that it had been involved.

Some Iranian officials have suggested that the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been regularly inspecting Iran’s nuclear facilities in recent years as part of the 2015 agreement, may have been a source of intelligence for Fakhrizadeh’s killers.

Iran began publicly exceeding uranium enrichment levels set by the nuclear agreement after the US restored sanctions. It currently enriches a growing uranium stockpile up to 4.5% purity.

That’s still far below weapons-grade levels of 90%, though experts warn Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least two atomic bombs if it chose to pursue them.

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