DUBAI/WASHINGTON--Iran said on Monday it would soon breach limits on how much enriched uranium it can stockpile under a 2015 agreement rejected by the United States, in a new point of contention with Washington which accused Tehran of "nuclear blackmail."
Tensions between Iran and the United States are rising more than a year after President Donald Trump announced Washington was withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Fears of a confrontation have mounted since last Thursday when two oil tankers in the Gulf were attacked, which the United States has blamed on Tehran. The U.S. military on Monday released images that it says show Iran's Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the tankers.
Two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday the United States is preparing to send additional troops to the Middle East in response to mounting concerns over Iran. They did not provide details on how many or the timing.
On May 24, Washington announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the region in reaction to tanker attacks in May that it also blamed on Iran.
The 2015 accord, which Iran and the other signatories have maintained following Trump's decision, caps Iran's stock of low-enriched uranium at 300 kg enriched to 3.67 percent. But Iran's Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Monday: "We have quadrupled the rate of enrichment (of uranium) and even increased it more recently, so that in 10 days it will bypass the 300 kg limit."
"Iran's reserves are every day increasing at a more rapid rate," he told state TV, adding that "the move will be reversed once other parties fulfil their commitments."
The move further undermines the nuclear pact also signed by Russia, Britain, Germany, China and the European Union, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the collapse of the deal would not be in the interests of the region or the world. A White House National Security Council spokesman said Iran's plan amounted to "nuclear blackmail" and must be met with increased international pressure.
The nuclear deal seeks to head off any pathway to an Iranian nuclear bomb in return for the removal of most international sanctions. Britain said if Iran breached agreed limits then London would look at "all options."
Israel, Iran's arch foe, urged world powers to step up sanctions against Tehran swiftly should it exceed the enriched uranium limit. However, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU would only react to any breach if the International Atomic Energy Agency formally identified one.
Trump's administration has accused Iran of being behind the explosions on tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a vital oil shipping route. Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, on Monday denied Tehran was behind the attacks and said if the Islamic Republic decided to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping lane it would do so publicly.
The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said Tehran was responsible for security in the Gulf and urged U.S. forces to leave the region, state TV said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has spoken to officials from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, China, Kuwait, South Korea, Britain and other countries to share evidence of Iran's involvement in the attacks on the Norwegian and Japanese tankers, a senior State Department official said.
Iran on Monday accused its main regional rival Saudi Arabia - a close U.S. ally - of adopting a "militaristic, crisis-based approach" for accusing Tehran of carrying out the tanker attacks.
