A top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is proposing that Iran resume its uranium enrichment in the wake of the U.S.'s recent withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.
The agreement installed curbs on Iran's enrichment efforts in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions that had crippled the Iranian economy. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would reintroduce U.S. sanctions.
The adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, was quoted Wednesday by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying that Iran is "capable of spinning centrifuges for enrichment" to higher levels should it choose to do so.
According to the report, Velayati also asserted that Iran should accelerate production of nuclear propulsion and also research advanced centrifuges. He claimed that doing this would not violate the nuclear agreement.
In the wake of Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the deal, several Iranian officials have indicated Tehran could soon resume work on its nuclear program.
