TEHRAN, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran on Monday announced that Iran has raised the concentration of its enriched uranium to 4.5 percent, crossing the limit of 3.67 percent set by the 2015 nuclear deal, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Behrouz Kamalvandi told IRNA that the enriched uranium of up to 5 percent of purity is used as fuel for power plants.
Earlier on the day, Kamalvandi said that Iran will aim at production of 20 percent uranium enrichment as the next step if the signatories to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, do not help Iran benefit from the economic privileges of the deal, according to Tasnim news agency.
On Sunday, Iran announced that it has started measures to enrich uranium beyond 3.67 purity.
"We will start enriching uranium beyond 3.67 percent, and its level of purity depends on our needs. This will happen officially," Ali Rabiee, spokesman for the Iranian government, said in a live broadcast on state TV.
A year after the U.S. unilateral exit from the nuclear deal, Iran withdrew from part of the nuclear deal on May 8 and threatened more actions in case its interests under the pact cannot be guaranteed.
At that time, Iran set a 60-day deadline, until July 7, for the Europeans to help the Islamic republic reap economic benefits of the deal.
However, Iran said that the Europeans have failed to take "practical" steps to ensure Iran's economic interests under the deal.
Around a week earlier, Iran announced that its low-grade enriched uranium stockpile had exceeded 300 kg, its first breach of limits set in the accord.
"According to my information, Iran has surpassed 300 kg (in the stockpile of enriched uranium) as we had already announced," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying.
Zarif made the remarks in the central Iranian city of Natanz, which is home to parts of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iran will "decisively" start the second phase of freezing its obligations from July 7, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on June 25.
Iran has said that it will reduce its commitments to the deal unless the parties to the accord take "practical and concrete" measures to counter the anti-Iran economic sanctions of the United States.
