MEE correspondent
Meanwhile, Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq threaten more attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad
A handout picture released by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization on 6 November 2019 shows the interior of the Fordow Uranium Conversion Facility in Qom (AFP)IRGC ex-chief urges an increase in uranium enrichment
Mohsen Rezaei, a former chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has suggested that Tehran's only way to get rid of Washington's sanctions is to increase uranium enrichment by 60 percent, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
"We have to improve our diplomacy and [also] increase the uranium enrichment to 60 percent because that's the only way to help us to remove all US sanctions," said Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Expediency Council and an advisor to Iran's supreme leader.
His comments mark the second time that a high-ranking Iranian official has urged that Iran should increase uranium enrichment since President Joe Biden said the US would not remove sanctions on Iran before Tehran’s complete return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
On 23 February, following an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to continue collaborations, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran would increase uranium enrichment if the US and European powers did not return to the deal.
In January, marking over two years since the 2018 unilateral withdrawal of the US from the deal, Tehran informed the IAEA that it would resume uranium enrichment to 20 percent purity.
The move came after five years of Iran's full compliance to the nuclear deal, under which Tehran kept its uranium enrichment below four percent. However, following the US's breach of the nuclear agreement and intensifying sanctions against Iran, Tehran has rolled back its compliances to the deal.
Meanwhile, the Javan daily, affiliated with the IRGC, claimed that Iran's flexibility in negotiating with the IAEA has made the UN watchdog body and western powers more demanding. The daily suggested that Tehran must take stricter measures in talks over its nuclear programme.
"The IAEA has recently increased its demands, asking for more access to Iran's nuclear sites," the daily wrote. "The IAEA's new policy of demanding more would pave the path for the Western powers' avarice [in nuclear talks]."
US embassy a target, says Iraqi militia leader
In an exclusive interview with Iran's conservative Fars news agency, the spokesman of the Iraqi militia group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba said that after the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the US, Washington's embassy in Iraq has become a legitimate target.
"Considering the simplicity of providing arms in Iraq, it is not unlikely that the youths would carry out retaliation against US interests. "The assassination [of Soleimani and al-Mohandes] has provoked anger and the desire for revenge among millions of Iraqis," Nasr al-Shammari told Fars.
“The US embassy could be one of those targets, especially because everyone knows this embassy is a devil’s nest for espionage, sabotage, military and intelligence operations.”
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba is a Shia armed faction backed by Iran and designated as a terrorist group by the US.
Amidst rising tensions between Tehran and Washington, the US embassy in Iraq was targeted several times by rockets. However, no armed group has claimed responsibility for those attacks, but Iranian-backed militias are suspected to be behind them.
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