Iran Backs Out of 2015 Nuclear Deal

[NewsReporter]

VOA - World News

Ian says it is no longer limiting the number of centrifuges used to enrich uranium-- a virtual abandonment of the 2015 nuclear deal.

"Iran's nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion," a government statement said Sunday.

The move comes two days after a U.S. missile strike in Baghdad killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, leading to threats of Iranian revenge.

Blowback: Iran Abandons Nuclear Limits After US Killing

The twin developments could bring Iran closer to building an atomic bomb and enable the Islamic State group to stage a comeback in Iraq, making the Middle East a far more dangerous and unstable place

But the Sunday statement did not make any explicit threats that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon -- something Iran has always denied it wants to do. Its statement said Iran will still cooperate with the International Atomic Agency.

Iran has been gradually backing down from a promise made in the 2015 deal since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. The European signatories -- Britain, France, and Germany -- have been urging Iran not to pull out.

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Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is staunchly defending the drone attack outside Baghdad International Airport that killed Soleimani. But Pompeo has so far refuse to publicly share the evidence backing the administration's claim that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on U.S. forces and officials in the Middle East.

Pompeo said that letting Soleimani "continue plotting and planning his terror campaign" was a bigger risk than the drone strike posed.

Pompeo several times declined to reveal evidence of the threat the U.S. believed that Soleimani posed.

"There are simply things we cannot make public," Pompeo told Fox News. "You've got to protect the sources providing the intelligence."

Pompeo Staunchly Defends Drone Attack on Iranian General

But top US diplomat refuses to disclose evidence supporting claim that Qasem Soleimani posed an imminent threat to American forces and officials in the Mideast

On CNN, Pompeo said U.S. officials would continue to disclose information about the drone attack, but only "consistent with protecting our sources and methods and importantly our capacity to continue to understand what's going on in presenting threats. You don't want to risk that intelligence."

Trump said Friday "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war...the Iranian regime's aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors must end and it must end now."

Trump claimed Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Iraqis and Iranians, saying the longtime Iranian general "made the death of innocent people his sick passion" while helping to run a terror network that reached across the Middle East to Europe and the Americas.

Many Republican lawmakers back Trump’s order to kill Soleimani.

Democrats say there is no doubt Soleimani was rotten and a killer. But they say Trump's action increases the threat of a U.S.-Iran war.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Fox, "We're now headed very close to the precipice of war," adding "you just can't go around and kill" world figures the U.S. opposes. "The president is not entitled to take us to war" without congressional authorization.

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President Trump threatens to attack 52 Iranian sites if Iran takes retaliates for Revolutionary Guard general's death

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed "severe revenge" against the killing of Soleimani. His top military adviser, Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, told CNN, "The response for sure will be military and against military sites."

Also Sunday, Iraq filed an official complaint with the United Nations secretary-general and the Security Council over the missile strike on Soleimani which was carried out on Iraqi soil.

The foreign ministry called the attack "a dangerous breach of Iraqi sovereignty and of the terms of the U.S. presence in Iraq." It is asking the Security Council to condemn the action.

Pakistan Stress Neutrality, Big Rally Protests Killing of Soleimani

Pakistani televisions aired footages of Sunday’s rally of mostly Shi’ite Muslims, including women and children, chanting 'Death to America" and "Death to Israel'

Also Sunday, at least two Katyusha rockets struck near the U.S. embassy inside Baghdad's green zone, home to many foreign embassies. There are no reports of any casualties or damage.  

An Iranian-backed mob of protesters breached the security perimeters surrounding the embassy last week, breaking into a visitor's reception area and burning a security post.

Kenneth Schwartz, Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.