Report: Iran set to re-open nuke sites shut down after deal with world powers

by WorldTribune Staff, July 22, 2016

The speaker of Iran’s parliament has asked the Islamic republic’s nuclear agency to prepare to re-open nuclear facilities that were closed as part of last year’s nuclear accord.

Iranian state media reported that Ali Larijani last week requested the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization prepare a plan to re-open nuclear enrichment facilitates. Iran passed legislation in June 2015 mandating the preservation its nuclear infrastructure if more sanctions are placed on the country.

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani
Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani

“It is necessary for the Atomic Energy Organization to act in compliance with the law passed on the re-opening of the nuclear plant to enrich uranium proportionate to the country’s needs and prepare a plan and keeps the [parliament] posted on it,” Larijani said.

The move came as Iranian leaders voiced displeasure over a recent United Nations report criticizing Teheran for violating international agreements prohibiting its work on ballistic missiles. The UN report said Iran’s repeated test launches violated international accords.

Iranian leaders dismissed the report as “biased.”

“While regretting the U.N. secretary general’s move, the Majlis warn the U.S. administration, the House of Representatives, and the Senate that diversionary actions against the nuclear deal have reached a point where Iran has no other option but to retaliate,” Larijani said.

Meanwhile, recently revealed documents show the Obama administration misled the American public and members of Congress about the precise contents of the nuclear deal.

Secret documents obtained by the Associated Press show that key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear procurement efforts will be lifted in a decade, putting Iran within six months of a nuclear bomb.

“Of course the administration has not told lawmakers this and of course it’s sadly predicable,” Rep. Peter Roskam, Illinois Republican, told the Washington Free Beacon. “There’s no celebration in the fact that the administration has gotten this [deal] wrong at conceivably every level. It is severe news and it has to be dealt with.”

Roskam said the documents invalidate the entirety of the nuclear deal.