The United States will use an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday to raise pressure on Iran over breaches of its nuclear deal, but diplomats expect no concrete action as parties to the deal consider their next move.
In the past two weeks, Iran has breached two limits central to the deal, which aimed to extend the time Iran would need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to, to a year from around two to three months.
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President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran's measures were within the framework of the deal, rejecting a warning by European parties to the pact to continue its full compliance.
Iran says it is responding to punishing economic sanctions Washington has imposed on Tehran since it pulled out of the deal a year ago. Washington says it is open to talks on a more far-reaching deal but Iran says it must first be able to sell as much oil as it did before the US withdrawal.
In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it was ironic Wednesday's meeting had been called by the United States, given it had withdrawn from the nuclear deal and "punishes all who observe it."
Iran says it will continue to breach limits of the deal one by one until it receives the economic windfall the deal promised.
"It was a huge mistake by the Americans to leave the deal," Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. "That has caused all the problems."
"The European (parties to deal) had enough time to salvage the pact," he added.
Washington meanwhile is set on isolating Iran to force it to negotiate over the nuclear pact, its missile program and its regional behavior. Iran's clerical rulers have ruled out talks with Washington until sanctions are lifted and the United States returns to the deal.
"The international community must hold Iran's regime accountable," the United States said in a statement explaining its decision to call the Board of Governors meeting.
Diplomats from several countries on the board said that while fiery exchanges between the Iranian and US envoys were likely at the closed-door meeting, they did not expect the board to take any concrete action.
"The latest steps indicate that Tehran's leadership has made a decision to move onto the offensive to create leverage vis-a-vis the international community and bring about a solution to its constraints," a Western intelligence source told Reuters.
The UN watchdog told members states in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday that Iran is enriching uranium to 4.5% purity, above the 3.67% limit set by its deal, diplomats familiar with the figures said.
While Iran has breached the terms of the deal which the IAEA is policing, the IAEA is not a party to the deal and Iran has not violated the Safeguards Agreement binding it to the agency.
"We did not want this meeting," a European diplomat said, before adding wryly: "It's a chance for everyone to express themselves."
IAEA inspectors verified on July 1 that Iran's stock of enriched uranium had gone over the limit set by the deal, and on Monday that Iran had enriched uranium beyond the deal's 3.67% purity limit. That is still far below the 20% it enriched to before the deal and the roughly 90% needed to make uranium weapons-grade.
