‘Nuclear extortion’
US slams Iran’s enrichment move, slaps sanctions; China urges calm; South Korea to dispatch diplomats to Tehran over seized tanker
Iran yesterday said it had stepped up its uranium enrichment, amid heightened tensions with arch-foe the United States and after Iran seized a South Korean tanker in strategic Gulf waters.
The Islamic republic said it was now refining uranium to 20 percent purity -- far above the level permitted under its 2015 agreement with world powers, but significantly below the 90 percent required for an atomic bomb -- in a step Washington condemned as "nuclear extortion".
The United States yesterday imposed fresh Iran-related sanctions targeting the steel sector, according to the Treasury Department's website, continuing to increase pressure on Tehran in the final weeks of Donald Trump's presidency. Washington blacklisted more than a dozen entities and one person, according to the website.
China yesterday urged calm and restraint. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Iran nuclear issue was at a critical juncture and was "extremely complex and sensitive".
It was the most striking suspension yet of Tehran's commitments under its landmark deal with six nations, which has been fraying ever since Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.
Washington has meanwhile reversed an order to bring home its USS Nimitz aircraft carrier from the Gulf, citing "threats" against Trump, after recently also flying B-52 bombers over the region.
On Monday, the Guards launched a dramatic action on the high seas, near the strategic Straits of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Its speedboats seized the South Korean-flagged Hankuk Chemi carrying oil chemical products and arrested its multinational crew of 20, charging the ship had polluted sea waters. Seoul will send a government delegation to Iran "at the earliest possible date" to negotiate the release of the vessel and its crew, the foreign ministry said yesterday.
Iran's move came after Tehran had urged Seoul to release billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea as part of the US sanctions.