World
Iran reportedly slows accumulation of enriched uranium: WSJ
People familiar with the matter have said that Iran has slowed how fast it is accumulating near weapons-grade enriched uranium and has diluted some of its stockpile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
This comes less than 24 hours after the US and Iran agreed to a deal that is expected to see five wrongfully detained Americans released from prison in return for billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds as well as the release of Iranian prisoners from the US.
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Although the Biden administration has said that the prisoner exchange deal was being worked on separately from efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the two appear to be related.
Efforts by the Biden administration to re-enter the deal were stalled last year following last-minute reneging by Tehran.
The Wall Street Journal said Iran had now diluted a small of the 60 percent enriched uranium and slowed the rate of accumulating new material.
US officials have warned that Iran could begin developing a nuclear weapon within weeks but that it has not yet decided to do so.
Despite the seemingly eased tensions between Washington and Tehran due to the recent developments, the US military deployed thousands of troops and battleships and fighter jets to the Middle East after Iran attempted to seize commercial tankers in the region.
Read more: Top US military general for Middle East aboard battleship in Strait of Hormuz