Fereydoon Abbasi, an Iranian nuclear scientist and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, confirmed on Sunday that Tehran will continue uranium enrichment by 20 percent.
It will also cease its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal in retaliation for the killing of the country’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran’s suburbs on Friday.
In a tweet, Abbasi wrote: “The blood of the great martyr Fakhrizadeh will change the planning of the Revolutionary Council of the nuclear program.”
Abbasi said that currently, the council will focus on four central issues that he will personally oversee: the beginning of the enrichment of uranium at 20 percent, removal of all IAEA inspectors, ending all cooperation with the agency and withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
On Sunday, the parliament passed an urgent motion necessitating “strategic action” for eliminating the sanctions.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said the motion was tagged with a "double urgency" status, and was ratified with 232 votes out of 246 MPs attending the session.
Council Chairman Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf said the council will discuss the decision this week.
For his part, head of the Iranian Commission of National-Security and Foreign Policy, Mojtaba Zonnour, explained the reasons for requesting to tag the motion as "very urgent" instead of " urgent."
He said the nuclear agreement has two aspects: one of them is the P5 +1 members, and the other is Iran, which has fully fulfilled all of its obligations.
“Many repeated reports of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency have stated that Iran has met all of its obligations. However, the United States, as one of the parties to the agreement, although it has abolished the banking sanctions on paper, has kept the specter of threats and sanctions on the global banking system, and none has been lifted,” he said.
