U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the United States would no longer waive sanctions related to Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant because Tehran had resumed uranium enrichment there, Reuters reported.
“The right amount of uranium enrichment for the world’s largest state sponsor of terror is zero. There is no legitimate reason for Iran to resume enrichment at this previously clandestine site,” said Pompeo.
Even after the United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, it continued to waive sanctions for foreign companies doing business at Fordow, which included Russia’s Rosatom. These waivers will end on Dec. 15.
United Nations nuclear watchdog the IAEA and Iran announced recently that Iran had resumed enriching uranium at Fordow, an underground facility the country originally hid from inspectors that was discovered in 2009, the report noted.
Republican senators Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Liz Cheney praised the decision and called on the administration to also end the waiver for Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, where the China National Nuclear Corp has worked.
Separately, Iran said on Monday that protests in the country had come to an end, Reuters reported.
“Calm has been restored in the country,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference, according to the report.
The protests began last week after gas price increases.