By Pooya Stone
United States President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran was playing with fire after Tehran said it had exceeded its limit for low-enriched uranium allowed under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Asked at a White House event if he had a message for Iran, Trump said: “They know what they’re doing. They know what they’re playing with and I think they’re playing with fire”.
U.S. Secretary of State said on Monday, “Iran’s regime has taken new steps to advance its nuclear ambitions. Once again, the regime uses its nuclear program to extort the international community and threaten regional security. The world’s top sponsor of terrorism can never be allowed to enrich uranium at any level”.
In Iran, a senior lawmaker said on Monday Israel will be destroyed in “half an hour” if the United States attacks Iran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Heightened tensions culminated last month in U.S. President Donald Trump’s last-minute decision to call off planned strikes on Iran after Tehran show down a U.S. drone. Washington also accused Tehran of being behind attacks on ships in the Gulf, which Iran denies.
“If the U.S. attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan,” Mojtaba Zolnour, the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy commission said on Monday, according to Mehr.
The White House said Monday that “the United States and its allies will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” vowing to continue exerting “maximum pressure” on the regime.
“It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
A diplomat in Vienna, where the UN’s nuclear watchdog is based, told AFP that Iran had exceeded the 300 kilogram (661 pound) limit by two kilograms.
Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday about Tehran’s breach of the 2015 nuclear deal limit, the White House said.
Based some wire reporting
