Iran can resume production of highly enriched uranium "at any moment" if the US again pulls out of a nuclear deal with major powers, its atomic energy chief said Friday, according to a report in the AFP news agency.
Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was speaking as talks in Vienna on bringing Washington back into the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers.
The 2015 deal set a 3.67 percent limit for Iran's uranium enrichment, sufficient for its power generation needs although not for some other civilian uses, such as the production of medical isotopes.
Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.
As part of that, Iran has been producing uranium enriched to 60 percent, a level that has sparked Western concern although it still falls short of weapons grade.
"Enrichment can be done at any moment when (officials) decide or there is the will for it," Eslami said on his organization’s website.
"If they [the US] do not fulfil their obligations, we will return to the previous situation. Enrichment is in place in the country with a maximum ceiling of 60 percent and this brought the West to negotiations," he added.
The comments come as indirect talks between Iran and the US in Vienna reach a critical stage.
A senior European Union official recently said that a US-Iranian deal to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement was close but success depended on the political will of those involved.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi last Saturday and urged him to agree to a deal to revive the 2015 deal.
He added that Iran should seize the opportunity to preserve the Vienna deal and avoid a major crisis, the French presidency statement said.
This week, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said that negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal have entered a "critical" stage during which some key issues still need to be resolved.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)