File’ Iran reportedly enriched about 970 lbs of Uranium at 60 % enough to make about 15 nuclear bombs when further enriched to 90 % REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Iran warned it could withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and close Yemen’s Bab-el-Mandeb Strait if the US launches further attacks, escalating regional tensions.
Tehran- Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei said Iran is considering pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in case of any further attack from the US. He also said that Iran could close the Bab-el-Mandeb in addition to the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed that Iran had gained valuable experience from the “12-day war” and the “third imposed war,” and knows how to defeat its adversaries.
This is not the firs time iran threatens to quit NPT,
On March 28 Iran also threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in response to U.S. and Israeli military strikes on its territory. The implementing legislation requiring withdrawal was introduced in Iran’s parliament just weeks before states-parties met in New York to review the treaty and discuss steps to strengthen it.
Malek Shariati, a member of the Iranian parliament, introduced the legislation titled “Support for the Nuclear Rights of the Iranian Nation” March 28. The Iranian news agency WANA reported that the proposal is built on three main pillars: withdrawal from the treaty, repeal of the law on implementing the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and support for forming new international agreements with partner countries to advance peaceful nuclear technologies.
Article X of the NPT allows a state-party to withdraw “if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country.” The state-party must give a three-month notice of intent to withdraw and submit a statement on the extraordinary events that led to the decision to withdraw.
In a March 27 post on the social media site X, Rezaei said that remaining a part of the NPT would be meaningless as it “has had no benefit for us.”
If Iran withdraws from the NPT, the bedrock of the international nonproliferation regime, it will be the second state to do so, after North Korea illegally withdrew without proper notice in 2003.
Strategic Chokepoint: The Bab al-Mandeb is a 29 km wide passage connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, handling roughly 10% to 12% of global seaborne oil and natural gas
Arms Control
