ELN Policy Fellow Sahil Shah joined James Menendez of BBC World Service Newshour to talk about Iran’s decision to begin enriching uranium to 60% purity at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, the site of an alleged Israeli attack that took out a large number of centrifuges, to produce medical isotopes.

Sahil noted that given the likely limited output of material enriched to that level from PFEP, raising to 60% is mainly a political signal from Iran for current JCPOA talks in Vienna and is the upper limit of where it can still leave a margin of doubt about its intentions. He noted that Iran’s reaction is concerning to many because the effort required to increase purity does not operate in a linear fashion: 60% purity is actually arguably 90% of the way to 90% purity. Sahil called on officials to remain resolute in their shared goal of restoring the JCPOA.

He said that the future survival of the JCPOA is not based on trust; it is based on political willpower.

You can listen to the full clip here.

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